Open Loops: The Hidden Reason You Feel Overwhelmed (and How to Close Them)

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Does this sound familiar: you feel overwhelmed, drained of energy, and have so much to do that you don’t know where to start? We’ve all been there at least once.

You might have too many open loops.

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What are open loops?

Open loops are tasks you’ve started but haven’t finished yet. It can be anything from doing the laundry, saving an interesting blog post idea, to a major assignment at work.

Open loops stay on your mind until you close them. One or two won’t make a huge difference, but once they start piling up, you’re bound to get stressed. When your mind is racing trying to remember everything you need to do, it’s difficult to focus — or fall asleep at night.

If you’re anything like me, you might feel like this quite often. But how can you deal with that, close those open loops, and clear your mind?

Let’s make it practical.

Why open loops cause stress

Every time a new idea pops into your head and you don’t capture it, it creates a new open loop. The same thing happens when you start a task but don’t finish it, have a project to do but don’t act on it, etc.

Two things bring the most stress:

unfinished tasks
the unknown

Everyone enjoys completing things, ticking boxes, and all that stuff. The Zeigarnik effect suggests that people remember unfinished or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks.

Having too many open loops leads to overwhelm because you can’t fully concentrate on what you’re doing right now, knowing there are other things waiting for you. They take up mental energy, leaving less of it for what matters. What’s more, open loops can keep pressurising you, making it hard to rest and recharge. That often means lower mental energy the next day — and then everything feels harder again.

Open loops also make your to-do list longer and longer. Everything seems urgent, so you hope you’ll complete it all in a day or two. When you see a huge list, you get anxious — and you’re more likely to procrastinate and feel worse about yourself.

There’s also the stress of the unknown. When you have a project to do, you don’t know the exact steps yet. Without a plan, you don’t know how to proceed, what the outcome will look like, or how long it will take. All of that can make you anxious, and it becomes tempting to postpone it.

That’s why “closing” an open loop often starts with planning it — not doing it.

A useful reframe: An open loop doesn’t always need “action”. Sometimes it just needs a next step.

Why you should close open loops

By closing open loops, you clear your mind and save space for truly important things.

Closing open loops can also:

improve focus
reduce procrastination
shorten your to-do list
lower stress
give you a sense of progress

It feels good to check things off your list, doesn’t it?

Three steps to lessen overwhelm and tackle existing open loops

Step 1: Do a brain dump

I love a solid brain dump, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this is the first step.

When you have a lot of thoughts running through your mind, you need to get them out of your head and onto paper.

Think of commitments and appointments:

Do you need to book a doctor’s appointment?
Did you promise to bake a cake for your aunt’s birthday?

Write it down.

Then look around your house:

Did you want to declutter your chest of drawers?
Organise kitchen cabinets?
Pay bills?

Add it to the list.

Take your time and list everything that’s on your mind, no matter how small or big.

Low-energy version: Set a timer for 5 minutes. Stop when it goes off. That still counts.

Step 2: Create a running master list

Once you finish your brain dump session, create a running master to-do list. This will be your hub for tasks that need doing.

Create a system that works — whether it’s a mobile app or a paper planner. There’s no right or wrong way.

My favourite way to keep a running master list is in Obsidian: one long list with tasks categorised and tagged.

If you prefer pen and paper, you might want separate lists for categories (personal, work/business, home, kids, etc.).

Now add your brain dump items to the master list — it will come in handy in the next step.

Important: update this list regularly, or it stops being trustworthy.

Step 3: Use an Eisenhower-style filter (do / schedule / delegate / delete)

You might’ve heard of the Eisenhower Matrix — a visual tool for prioritising tasks. It ranks tasks by urgency and importance, then divides them into four categories: do, schedule, delegate, delete.

You can use a simpler version: don’t overthink urgency/importance. Just sort your loops into the four buckets.

Do it

Go through your list and look for tasks you can (or should) do now:

urgent
important
or take less than 2 minutes

If you can’t do them all in one go, create reminders or schedule them.

Schedule it

Go through the list again and decide what needs to go on your calendar.

If you need to run errands or call the doctor, put it in your calendar and set a reminder. Set aside a small block of time to tackle these tasks.

Delegate it

Delegating can be hard. We want to stay in control and believe we’ll do it better.

But when you have a lot on your plate, delegation helps you close open loops faster.

Go through your list again and see what you can hand off. For example: ask your partner to return a parcel or call the estate agency.

You don’t have to do everything alone.

Delete it

By now, you should have only a handful of tasks left.

This can be tricky because the tasks have been on your mind for a while, and they can feel important just because they’ve been there.

Decide which tasks you can safely drop. Ask yourself:

Is this aligned with your current goals?
Is this something I only wanted because I saw someone else doing it?

If yes, delete it.

Give yourself permission to focus on what matters in this season of life.

Open loops and productivity: 4 practical tips

Avoid opening new loops (where you can)

Too many tasks

One of the easiest ways to create new open loops is filling your schedule to the brim. When you do that, there’s a high chance you won’t accomplish everything you planned — and unfinished tasks become new loops.

Procrastination

Procrastination can play a big part too. Because it’s easy to get distracted by more “interesting” things, you can end up starting lots of tasks and finishing none — which is a fast route to overwhelm.

Turn off notifications

Notifications are a common source of distraction. Try postponing emails/messages until you’ve tackled your most important task for the day.

Less input = fewer new loops.

Set boundaries

Know your boundaries and don’t say yes to everything.

This gives you space in your calendar for what’s important to you, and reduces the risk of opening new loops.

Accepting a party invitation doesn’t seem like a big deal, but if you’re going out of obligation, it costs time and energy — and it can add new tasks too (buying a present, organising childcare, etc.).

Saying no to new commitments means you’re honouring your existing ones.

Schedule an “open loops day”

Recently, I stopped scheduling major tasks for Fridays and use that time to tackle open loops that didn’t get closed during the week. That way I don’t stress as much when I don’t have the time or energy to finish everything.

If you have a lot of open loops, you can schedule a whole week to tackle them. It might help to do this every couple of months — for example, once a quarter, every six months, or before New Year.

Don’t make this fancy. Choose something you’ll still do when you’re exhausted.

The 2-minute rule

David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, states that “If an action will take less than two minutes, it should be done at the moment it’s defined.”

I’ve found this helps with open loops because it prevents tiny tasks from piling up.

When you see a dirty plate on the table, don’t leave it there. That’s a new loop. Instead, take it to the sink.

Small things stack quickly — and so does the mental load.

Map out your bigger open loops (aka projects)

Big open loops are often the most stressful because they’re vague.

Map out the project in detail, then set a few checkpoints and schedule the next steps.

Your mind calms down when it knows what “done” looks like and what happens next.

Open loops: conclusion

There is a better way than feeling overwhelmed and buried under a pile of tasks and thoughts.

Closing open loops can be simple — but sometimes it’s the last thing we want to do.

By brain dumping, organising your tasks in one place, and giving each loop a clear next step, you’ll feel better — and your productivity will improve.

When you’re done, either file your brain dump somewhere safe (so it doesn’t re-haunt you) or recycle it. The goal is one clear list, rather than loads of scattered notes.