How to Close the Open Loops in Your Head
Have you ever had ten unfinished tasks, decisions, worries, and ideas floating around in your head at once?
In psychology, these are called open loops: unfinished tasks, unresolved worries, or unmade decisions that continue taking up mental energy. Psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik observed that our minds tend to hold onto incomplete things more strongly than completed ones. This became known as the Zeigarnik Effect.
Every open loop is, in a sense, a small alarm your brain refuses to turn off until something happens with it.
In the Summer Practice, the Forge, we've been exploring tools that help move that mental noise out of your head and onto the page. Here are three you can try.
1. The Mind Sweep
Set a timer for 15 minutes and open a blank document or journal.
Write down everything currently taking up space in your head:
- Unfinished tasks
- Worries
- Ideas
- Things you've been meaning to do
- "I should really..." thoughts
- Things you're afraid you'll forget
Don't organize or judge anything yet. Just get it out.
2. The Loop Triage
Now take your list and sort each item into one of three categories:
Do it now — If it takes less than two minutes, do it immediately.
Schedule it — If it requires real time and attention, put it on your calendar with a specific date.
Release it — If it's not actually yours to carry right now, let it go. Write "not now" beside it and mean it.
Then look at the loops carrying the most anxiety or shame.
Ask yourself: Is the story I'm telling myself about this the only possible story?
"I haven't finished this" and "I've made great progress" can both be true. One can shut you down. The other can help you keep moving.
You can also try speaking to yourself in the second person.
Instead of:
"I'm so behind."
Try:
"You've been carrying a lot. You're still showing up. That matters."
Psychologist Ethan Kross has studied how shifting from first-person to second-person self-talk can create psychological distance. Sometimes that small shift helps you access your own perspective rather than getting swallowed by the panic.
3. The Weekly Sweep
Open loops accumulate.
At the end of each week, take five minutes to check your inbox, notes app, calendar, and even the notebook beside your bed.
Write down anything new that's still unresolved. Sort it quickly.
Then close the list.
The Weekly Sweep isn't about becoming perfectly organized. It's maintenance — a way to keep small mental alarms from piling up.
Your brain isn't a storage system.
It's a creative instrument.
When you stop asking it to remember every unfinished thing, you create more room for the work, ideas, music, and life you actually want to engage with.
💛 - Ixi
Curious about The Forge, our summer practice? It's a place where our small group harnesses the heat of the summer months to gain momentum on one thing you've been wanting/dreaming of / hoping to do.
The practice is ongoing — you're never too late to start or join. It's $39 for each seasonal practice (or already included if you're a Thrive member). We meet you with a workbook, live classes. guests, and gatherings. The next one is the Fall Equinox, starting September 22. Until then, come into the summer forge and get the workbook and replays and binge it!
Option #1 - join the Summer Forge $39: classes are rewatchable for a period of time
Option #2 - become a Thrive member $49/mo: classes are always available, on top of the vault of video lessons, challenges, conversations and resources to support your career
LIVING to see you flourish!
💛 - Ixi
