10-minute rule
I worked in this industry one time when one of the duties we had was to collect telex dispatches from all over the world on events that were to happen many weeks down the line, sometimes even months, from what is coming and going, to who is coming or going. And we worked in shifts.
So we made a seven-day pocket folder and we collected all the telexes in the folder with the corresponding days, so a telex for an event on March 29th 2007 goes into the Thursday pocket.
When I come on duty on March 29th, I pick up all the telexes on events that will happen on that Thursday, that will be my action list for the day, and I return the rest of the telexes back into the Thursday pocket. And each person who comes on duty will service his duty list for the day from the relevant pocket. And we learn never to worry about things that will not happen on our shift, for some time, and not to worry about not remembering what we have not acted upon.
I have carried that discipline into my other careers and they have served me well.