The Open Loop Reset
Get the loops out of your head and onto paper, so your attention stops leaking into background noise.
- Runs for
- One session, then weekly
- Costs you
- 45 minutes once, then 10 minutes a week
The problem
You feel busy and scattered but not progressing. Most of that feeling isn't your workload. It's open loops: unfinished, unrecorded commitments your mind keeps rehearsing because it doesn't trust you to remember them.
The protocol
How to run it
- 1
Sit down with paper and write every unfinished thing on your mind. Work, home, relationships, the email you haven't sent, the shelf you haven't fixed.
- 2
Keep going past the point where you think you're done. The last few are usually the heaviest.
- 3
For each one, write the single next physical action it needs. Not the project. The very next action.
- 4
Decide for each: do it now if it takes two minutes, schedule it, delegate it, or consciously drop it.
- 5
Put the list somewhere you trust and will actually look at.
- 6
Once a week, repeat it in ten minutes to catch new loops before they pile up.
What to expect
Most people feel a strange physical relief within an hour, and noticeably clearer focus for several days. The effect fades as new loops accumulate, which is exactly why the weekly repeat matters more than the first big session.
The thinking behind it
How to Reclaim Your Attention: A Practical Playbook18 min