I’m coming to you with a tip that can help you feel more at peace in your work life. And it works just as well in your personal life too. And that tip is to close open loops.
Listen To The Podcast Here
When I say open loop, I’m talking about something in your life that is incomplete. Whether that’s a text or email that wasn’t returned. Or an errand you haven’t had time to run. Of course, there are bigger-scale open loops too. Like hearing back on a proposal you submitted. And while this episode isn’t specifically about those types of open loops, I 100% believe that closing your little loops will help put you in a better energetic state that just invites more resolution into your life. Although this isn’t a scientifically proven principle, ha.
Closing open loops is a powerful activity because it drives us crazy to have an open item. The human mind seeks closure. And we all have so many more open items than ever before because of how many digital communications we all send and receive every day. There’s no way you can stay on top of them all. Well, if you’re figured out how to do it, would you write in and share your tips with me? No seriously, I would love it.
Open Loops Are Like Clutter
They represent a decision that hasn’t been made. Making decisions is a really powerful way to get clarity and move forward. You really can’t take action until you’ve made a decision, whether consciously or not.
It’s true that we often don’t know what’s going to happen next, and that more will be revealed, but closing open loops helps provide a little tighter container for the various scenarios about how things could play out. Closing loops doesn’t mean you get to dictate outcomes — responding to an email from someone inquiring about your services doesn’t 100% mean that they will end up booking you for those services, but if you don’t write them back, your chances are much smaller that they will. It’s kind of like putting up the bumper rails at the bowling alley. Closing open loops keeps more balls from rolling right out of your lane–even if it doesn’t guarantee that you get a strike.
Daily Tiny Assignment
What are some open loops you could close? Can you set aside 20 or 30 minutes or even a hour to go on a loop-closing tear–that could look like going through your inbox and responding to the emails that have been languishing there, or going through your stack of mail that you’ve been ignoring, or returning those phone calls that have been on your list for a while now. Or packing up anything you’ve ordered online that needs to be returned and dropping it in the mailbox. Whatever loops you close, doing it is going to give you a nice charge of energy and clarity that’s going to help move you forward.
Maybe you’ll like it so much that you’ll think about earmarking some time in your schedule for regular “closing open loops” time. Friday afternoon can be a great time for this, when you’re kinda done being productive but you want to set yourself up for picking things back up on Monday and not starting a new week already feeling behind. I don’t really enjoy working on the weekends, but when I do, I most often spend it closing open loops. It helps me sleep better on Sunday night–which is traditionally the most common time for insomnia across the board and for me in particular.
I think you’ll find that closing open loops can be really helpful to your peace of mind and your forward momentum. Go ahead, go give it try right now why don’t you?
