I did the one file thing for a while, but my programmer’s nature kicked in - it seems I am mentally tuned to ignoring large blocks of text as “finished” unless I force attention to them. My Next Action lists turned into a big block of “things to ignore” and I never mentally processed them even while I was reviewing them. Text, bulleted lists, code, book pages, my mind blanks them all out once I have processed them once.

I switched to full-analogue: one 3x5 card = one thought. Now processing a stack of cards forces me to focus on each item fully. It’s the only way I can cope.