Forty-Seven Open Tabs
The problem isn't that you don't know what to do. It's that you can't stop thinking about everything else.
I have forty-seven tabs open right now. I counted.
Some of them are research for projects I'm actively working on. Some are articles I meant to read weeks ago. Some are tools I was evaluating. Some are things I need to buy but haven't gotten around to. At least three are pages I don't recognize anymore—I have no idea why I opened them or what I was looking for.
This browser is a map of my attention. It's not a flattering portrait.
I've tried every productivity system. GTD. Pomodoro. Time blocking. Notion templates. Todoist with seventeen labels. Roam with backlinks connecting everything to everything else.
They all work for a while. They all eventually stop working.
Here's what I've come to believe: the problem isn't the system. The problem is that most systems are designed to help you capture and organize, but not to help you decide.
I can capture anything. I can organize anything. I can tag and categorize and cross-reference until everything is perfectly filed.
And then I can stare at my perfectly organized list and still have no idea what to actually do next.
Douglass is my attempt to solve this for myself.
Named after Frederick Douglass—the advisor I needed but couldn't afford to hire—it's an experiment in decision assistance. Not just remembering things, but actually helping you choose between them.
Feed it your chaos. The ideas, the obligations, the opportunities, the random 2 AM thoughts. It surfaces what matters right now, based on your stated goals, your calendar, your energy. A swipe interface for daily triage. Not a to-do list. A decision engine.
It's alpha. Very alpha. I'm using it myself, refining as I go.
But the core idea feels right: the modern knowledge worker's problem isn't capture. It's selection. It's knowing what to do next when everything feels equally urgent and nothing feels quite right.
Maybe that's just me. Maybe you've got your tabs under control.
But if you're staring at your own browser window feeling slightly overwhelmed, know that you're not alone. And maybe—maybe—there's a system that can help.