Reduce your mental load

The problem: a board that's never empty

A typical Kanban or Trello board accumulates tasks over time. Done items pile up, new items keep arriving, and your board becomes an ever-growing wall of cards. You scroll through dozens of tasks, many of which don't need your attention right now. That's exhausting — and it's the opposite of focus.

The mental load doesn't come from the work itself. It comes from seeing everything at once and constantly wondering: "What should I be doing right now?"

Klaro Cards solves this in two complementary ways: focus (see only what matters right now) and capture (collect information instantly, process it later).

Part 1: Focus — make the board empty itself

The idea is the same as in Effective focus during a meeting: set up your board so that cards disappear when they're done, and aim for an empty board.

Step 1: Create a Kanban board for your tasks

If you don't have one yet, create a board that tracks your personal tasks:

1. Go to any workspace and click + New board.
2. Set the display mode to Kanban (see The Anatomy of a Board for details on display modes).
3. Set Arrange by to your status dimension (e.g. status with values like "To do", "In progress", "Done").

Step 2: Filter to a small batch

Don't try to see all your tasks at once. Open the filters panel (press f) and set filters to show only the tasks you want to focus on:

• For example: priority = urgent or priority = important
• Or: only tasks assigned to you, with a due date this week

Think lean: small batches. Finish what you started before starting something new. Five to ten cards is a good focus batch.

Tip: If your board is showing too many cards, Klaro Cards will display a notification inviting you to use filters — take it seriously! See There are too many cards... for more on this.

Step 3: Exclude "Done" but keep the column visible

This is the key trick. In your board filters, exclude cards with status = Done. But in the Kanban settings, keep the "Done" column visible even though it's empty.

To configure the filter:

1. Press b to open Board settings, then go to Cards shown.
2. Expand the Progress (or status) dimension and select all values except "Done".

To keep empty columns visible:

1. In Board settings > Board display mode, make sure "Hide columns with no card" is off (toggled off). This ensures the "Done" column stays visible even when it's empty.

Step 4: The "Done" column is a black hole

Because the filter excludes done cards, the "Done" column stays permanently empty. Klaro Cards shows a message in it — a visual reminder that cards go in but don't come back.

When you drag a card to "Done" (or change its status), it disappears. Gone from view. One less thing on your mind. The board shrinks.

Step 5: When the board is empty, you're done

Your filtered board only shows the small batch you committed to. As you complete tasks, they vanish. When nothing is left, you've finished your current focus. Take a break, or pull in the next batch by adjusting your filters.

This is very different from a board that never empties. An empty board is a reward. It tells you: "You can stop thinking about this now."

Part 2: Capture — send it to Klaro Cards and forget

The other side of mental load is the fear of forgetting: an idea in the shower, a request from a colleague, an email that needs follow-up. You keep it in your head "just in case" — and that's draining.

The solution: capture the information immediately with minimal effort, and trust that it's safe. You'll enrich and process it later. Klaro Cards gives you several ways to do this.

Capture by email

Forward an email (or send a quick note from your phone) to your board's email address. Klaro Cards creates a card automatically — the email subject becomes the title, the body becomes the description.

No need to open the app, categorize, or think. Just send and forget.

To set up email-to-card on a board, see Send emails to create cards.

Capture from mobile

Use the Klaro Cards mobile app to create a card in seconds. A title is enough — you're in a meeting, on the bus, or walking. Capture it and move on.

Capture via webhooks

Connect external tools (Zapier, Make, custom scripts, forms) to create cards automatically. A form submission, a support ticket, a monitoring alert — anything can become a card on the right board without you lifting a finger.

To set up webhooks on a board, see Create cards using webhooks.

Process later, at your own pace

All these captured cards land on a board, ready for you to enrich when the time is right. Add a priority, assign a status, write a description. The point is: you didn't have to do it in the moment. The information is safe, already in the right place. Your head is free.

Putting it together

The two parts work hand in hand:

1. Capture everything that comes your way — quickly, with minimal info, through any channel (email, mobile, webhooks).
2. Process your inbox: triage captured cards, assign priorities, move what matters into your focus batch.
3. Focus on the small batch. Complete tasks, watch them disappear into the Done black hole.
4. Repeat when the board is empty.

This isn't about doing more. It's about seeing less, trusting your system, and giving your brain permission to stop worrying.