I’m with you, Marc. I have a category called “@focus” that I use for that purpose. And I love your “three things” idea.

But sometimes my available reserve of energy and attention needs to be trained completely on the tasks of the day, without all of the scanning, futzing, and things-getting-doneness even appearing on my radar screen.

For me there’s no substitute for occasionally putting “the system” completely away and just having a pen and a sheet of paper with a few items scratched on it. That’s why I called it a “vacation.” Maybe a better term would be “primitive camping.” :)