You pick up your phone and start swiping away the apps running in the background.
Thirty open. Half you don’t remember using.
The moment you close them all, your phone — and your brain — feels lighter.

That’s the power of closing loops…

Your mind works the same way. Every unfinished task is like an app quietly running in the background, draining energy without you noticing.

Until you close those loops, you’ll always feel a step behind.

“Your brain treats unfinished business like a computer treats open applications. Each one takes up RAM. Enough of them and your whole system slows down.” (Clary, 2025)

What Is an Open Loop?

Every unfinished task — that text you haven’t sent, laundry still on the chair, that errand you keep putting off — is an open loop tugging at your attention.

A closed loop? That’s a task completed. One less item in your mental inbox.

Life doesn’t stop— your mental inbox will keep filling even after your last day. So the goal isn’t to eliminate tasks altogether, but to handle them as they come and protect your mental bandwidth for what truly matters.

But why does this matter so much?

Why Open Loops Weigh You Down

Open loops are more than annoyances. They:

• * Keep your mind continuously distracted
• * Increase stress and mental load
• * Drain energy faster
• * Reduce productivity
• * Feed decision fatigue
  (Dubois, 2024)

Even one of these is reason enough to check in on your own mental to-do list.

Mental Clutter at Its Finest

You’ve been taught to keep everything in your head like some infallible supercomputer. But just like a computer’s hard drive, your mental storage can get fragmented and overheat.

The fix? Offload it. Write it down.
Free up mental bandwidth and give your mind space to think clearly.

This is where Kidlin’s Law comes in:

When you externalize your thoughts, you stop juggling them in your head — and suddenly, the fog starts to lift.

Why do open loops hog up so much processing power?

The Zeigarnik Effect

The Zeigarnik Effect explains why unfinished tasks cling to your memory more than completed ones. Those half-finished items replay in your head like a song stuck on loop because you never reached the end of the verse.

Once you finish the “song,” the loop closes — and your brain finally lets it go.

So What Can You Do?

Here’s a simple playbook to start clearing your head:

1. Note Dump: Write down every open loop you can think of.
The first time I did this, crossing each item off was so satisfying. The dopamine hit was top-tier.

2. Find the Big One: Identify the biggest or scariest loop and either do it or schedule it.
Tackle your hardest thing first — it sets the tone for the rest of your day.

3. Close and Celebrate: Cross that loop off, feel that clean dopamine rush, and move to the next.

Closed Loops = Clean Dopamine

Closing loops isn’t a luxury — it’s a necessity.

The tasks you dread are rarely as bad as you imagine, but the longer you delay, the more space they take up in your mind.

“Closing a loop is when that attachment to reality being different (‘Why hasn’t that plant been watered yet?’) has been severed — either by completing the task or letting go of it. You’ll know a loop has closed because there’s a return of energy and a sense of satisfaction.” (Cooper, 2022)

The faster you close loops, the clearer your head becomes, and the more focus you reclaim for what actually matters.

The Short-Term Pain vs. Long-Term Agony

This is the daily battle — even if you don’t see it.

As a recovering procrastinator, I’ve learned that every time I delay something, I’m just putting a pause on closing that loop. It sits in the background, quietly pinging my attention.

You tell yourself you’ll do it tomorrow, but tomorrow comes and goes just as fast — and the cycle repeats.
Procrastination is just choosing the cheap dopamine of avoidance over the clean dopamine of completion.

Next Steps

Learning about open loops has helped me face tasks as they come, rather than letting them linger.

Get it done. Knock it out. Check it off the list.
You’ll survive the short-term discomfort, avoid the long-term drain, and create space in your head for what’s next.

Now it’s your turn — grab a pen and paper, list your open loops, and start closing them one by one.
You don’t have to finish them all at once, but with each closed loop, your mind will feel lighter, faster, clearer.

Think of tomorrow’s you operating with a fresh browser — cleaner, sharper, and finally running at full speed.

Citations

Clary, S. D. (2025, October 7). You’re Tired From Not Finishing. https://newsletter.scottdclary.com/p/youre-tired-from-not-finishing
Cooper, M. L. (2022, August 27). The Problem of Open Loops. https://mlcooper.com/problem-open-loops/
Patrick, L. (2025, October 16). Millennial Man’s Theory on Why You Should “Close Your Loops” Blows Minds. Newsweek.
Dubois, S. (2024, December 9). Closing Open Loops: The Key to a Calmer, More Productive Mind. https://www.dsebastien.net/closing-open-loops-the-key-to-a-clear-mind