Regret is quiet.

It doesn’t show up as panic or urgency. It shows up as procrastination, hesitation, and that strange heaviness when you know what you should be doing—but don’t.

Most productivity systems don’t know what to do with regret. They’re built for tasks, goals, and deadlines—not for unfinished emotional business.

So instead of trying to “let go” of my regrets, I did something different:

I built a system for them inside Todoist.

This post explains that system.

The Real Problem with Regret

Here’s what I noticed about regret:

  • Ignored regret turns into guilt
  • Guilt kills momentum
  • Lost momentum creates more regret

It’s a loop.

Trying to “think positively” didn’t help. Dumping regrets into my task list made things worse.

What finally worked was this mindset shift:

Regret is not a task. Regret is information.

Once I treated regret as data—not a judgment—I could work with it.

The Regret → Repair System

The system has one goal:

Turn regret into calm, repeatable action—without self-punishment.

To do that, I separated thinking from doing.

The system uses three projects in Todoist, each with a single responsibility.

1. Regret Log — Capture Without Judgment

This project exists for one reason: to get regrets out of your head and onto paper.

When a regret pops up, I add a task like this:

Task title

REGRET: Missed consistency in learning

Description

What happened:
What I wish I had done:
Was this in my control? (Yes/No):

That’s it.

No due dates. No priorities. No labels.

This isn’t a to-do list. It’s a pressure release valve.

Once it’s written here, my brain stops replaying it.

2. Regret Repairs — Where Change Actually Happens

Regrets don’t belong in your daily task list.

Repairs do.

For every regret that’s controllable or ongoing, I create one small repair task.

Naming rule:

[REPAIR] <simple, repeatable action>

Examples:

Task
[REPAIR] Study 25 minutes at 7am (daily)

Description
If I miss one day → Resume next day.
No catch-up.
No guilt.

Now the Description is very very important part that lives inside each repair task.

Without the Description:

  • You skip once→You feel bad→You avoid→You quit

With the Description:

  • You skip→You resume→Done→No drama

Rules I follow strictly:

  • The task must be boring
  • It must be repeatable
  • It must take ≤ 30 minutes
  • It must not try to “fix everything”

Big regrets heal faster through small consistency than big plans.

3. Weekly Review — The System That Keeps It Clean

Nothing works without review.

I created one recurring task:

Weekly Regret Review

Scheduled:

Every Sunday evening

Checklist:

☐ Review Regret Log
☐ Label regrets as controllable / uncontrollable / ongoing
☐ Convert ONE regret into a repair task
☐ Mark regret as converted

Only one regret per week. No backlog guilt. No emotional overwhelm.

This keeps regret from piling up.

The Conversion Rule (Important)

During the weekly review, every regret must go one way:

  • Uncontrollable regret → Label it → Mark it done → Let it go
  • Controllable or ongoing regret → Create ONE repair task → Mark regret as converted

Unprocessed regret is mental debt. This rule prevents that debt from compounding.

What Changed After a Month

After about 30 days, I noticed something unexpected:

  • Fewer regrets showing up
  • Less emotional weight attached to them
  • Consistent, calm habits replacing self-lectures
  • Regret becoming guidance instead of punishment

I didn’t erase my past. I built a system that made it irrelevant.