The Doom Pile Protocol

1. Get one empty box and one trash bag. Any box works; pretty is not required.
2. Set a timer for fifteen minutes. The timer, not the pile, decides when you stop.
3. Put the box next to the pile. Working distance is arm's length.
4. Phone in the other room, or playing music only — no scrolling between items.

That is the whole setup. If gathering supplies takes more than two minutes, grab a laundry basket and keep going; starting ugly beats not starting.

Work the pile in this order, top to bottom. No sorting into neat categories first — that is the trap that eats the hour and kills the mood.

1. First sweep: obvious trash straight into the bag. Wrappers, dead pens, expired anything.
2. Then item by item, top of the pile only. No digging for easy wins at the bottom.
3. Each item gets exactly one touch and one verdict.
4. Bag out to the bin the moment the timer rings — never “later.”

Hold the item and count to three. Then choose:

• It has a home — set it by the box and deliver it when the timer ends. Trips to other rooms happen after the pass, not during.
• It is trash — into the bag, immediately, no reconsidering.
• Unsure — into the box. The box is the maybe pile; there is no other maybe pile.

Three seconds feels reckless. It is actually the correct speed — your first verdict is usually the honest one, and hesitation only manufactures maybes.

Stop when any of these happen — stopping mid-pile is allowed:

• The timer rings. Hands off, bag out, box lid on.
• The bag is full. A full bag is a finished session.
• Three items in a row feel undecidable. Decision fuel is gone; pushing on builds shame, not floor space.

Once a week, run a ten-minute maintenance pass on the box: top layer only, same three-second rule, same stop conditions. A pile that shrinks a little every week beats a purge that fails every year.