My (imperfect, incomplete) solution to dealing with this is to establish a canonical format and data source. For example, my list of book to read is saved as an extensive Amazon Wish List. This both ensures I don't waste time reconstructing the hundreds of books I've already listed and lowers the barrier to actually obtaining the books (I could literally click once and have the book on my Kindle), leaving only the hard part of actually reading it. I'm still working on the mental process which transitions from the list to the action.