Project Mindsweep

What this is

A structured way to get everything out of your team's heads about a specific project. Based on the GTD mindsweep method, this tool walks your team through a series of targeted prompts to surface tasks, blockers, decisions, and loose ends that are taking up mental space.

This isn't about solving problems or making decisions—it's about creating a complete inventory of what's actually in play so nothing important stays stuck in someone's head.

When to use this

• •At the start of a project to surface all the implicit tasks and concerns
• •When a project feels stuck or confusing and no one is sure what to do next
• •After a scope change or major pivot to recapture the updated reality
• •When there's too much context in too many heads and nothing is written down
• •Before a planning session to make sure you're working from a complete picture

Who this is for

Project teams who need to get aligned on what actually exists in the project right now. Product managers clearing backlogs. Engineering teams surfacing technical debt. Anyone who feels like important things are slipping through the cracks because they're living in someone's head instead of a shared system.

Use this as a team to capture collective knowledge, or individually to clear your own mental clutter about a project.

How it works

Work through the prompts one at a time. Write short fragments—tasks, concerns, questions, blockers. Don't filter, don't prioritize, don't solve. Just capture. If a prompt doesn't apply, skip it.

The goal is to empty the mental backlog so you can see the full scope clearly. Once everything is out, you can sort, prioritize, and decide what to do next.

What this is not

This is not a project management tool or task tracker. It won't organize your backlog or tell you what to prioritize. It's simply a capture mechanism—a way to get everything visible before you decide what to do with it.