The magic of open loops

This is the time of year when I like to create space for open loops.

Open loops are all of those things that you’ve been thinking about, but that you haven’t done anything about.

With traditional productivity, open loops are a big problem. You can’t think about the important things in life if you’re busy thinking about the unimportant things.

If you’re thinking to yourself that you need to buy cat food, but you aren’t doing it, you have an open loop.

The point of productivity systems such as Getting Things Done is that they help you close open loops.

You write down the thing in a place where you can trust it will get done, and the loop is closed.

Open loops are a problem in traditional productivity, but creative productivity is a different story. This week, I’m featuring an observation that Tiago Forte made of something that had become second nature to me.

It doesn’t do you any good to have an open loop about buying cat food. It does a lot of good to have open loops for your toughest creative problems.

You put a question in your mind, and your subconscious mind starts working on it. The process is called incubation.

And that’s why I do my best to take it easy this time of year. Lots of other people are taking time off. It’s a great time to give some space to those loops that have been open all year long, but that havne’t had a chance to breathe.

That’s why this Love Mondays is the last Love Mondays of the year.

That’s why I’m running a "best of" series on my podcast, which includes some thoughts about why I take this time off. See you next year.

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