Ask HN: Less Bureaucratic productivity software. Activation Energy, it's a thing

I am sure that everybody has tried at some point to use some sort of productivity software. A to-do list, project management software, or a personal wiki containing personal wisdom. I am equally sure that most of them have stopped sometime shortly afterwards. For all the wisdom that you have, it feels like you will just remember it, and have no need to open a browser, navigate to the wiki, create a new page, and delineate all that you have learned.

Some people must have succeeded though, and some of those people must have been as lazy and dedicated to instant gratification as the rest of us. I wonder how they did it.

For example, I would love to use a nested to-do list, with the ability to keep notes on things that I have finished. Unfortunately, if accessing it at any time takes more than a single keystroke, and would take me out of what I am doing, it seems like I probably would not use it. At any time when I should update it, I will tend to choose to store the information in short term memory out of expediency. The activation energy is just too high.

Has anybody found a technique for managing themselves that takes very little energy to integrate? Ideally, so little, that it seems like using it is easier than not using it.

Or did everybody just have to buck up and start making the responsible choice to keep themselves organized?

-Alex