Open Loops Are Killing Your Productivity (And You Can't See It)

Right now, somewhere in your brain, a background process is running. It's not thinking about your current task. It's remembering that email you need to respond to, the doctor's appointment you haven't scheduled, the conversation you've been avoiding with your colleague.

These are open loops - commitments or intentions that haven't been resolved. And they're consuming cognitive bandwidth even when you're focused on something else.

What Is an Open Loop?

An open loop is any commitment, idea, or task that:

• You've committed to (even just mentally)
• Hasn't reached a clear resolution
• Doesn't have an obvious next action

David Allen defined this concept in Getting Things Done, but the psychological reality goes deeper than task management. Open loops create what psychologists call the Zeigarnik Effect - the tendency for unfinished tasks to occupy our working memory.

Your brain treats unfinished commitments like browser tabs that never close. Each one uses a small amount of memory - until there are too many.

Why Open Loops Are Invisible

If open loops were visible, we'd close them. The problem is they hide in several places:

• Your inbox - Emails that need decisions, not just reading
• Vague tasks - "Think about Q2 planning" (Think what, exactly?)
• Unspoken commitments - Things you said "sure" to but never captured
• Future concerns - Worries without actionable responses
• Relationships - Conversations you've been meaning to have

Each of these seems minor individually. Together, they create background noise that reduces your ability to focus on what's in front of you.

The Cognitive Cost

Research on cognitive load suggests that each open loop consumes a small but measurable amount of working memory. Working memory is limited - most people can hold about 4-7 items actively.

But open loops don't need to be active to consume resources. They run in the background, creating:

• Attention residue - Part of your mind stays on unfinished business
• Decision avoidance - You unconsciously avoid thinking about them
• Anxiety signals - Low-grade stress from the "should" you're not doing
• Cognitive switching - Random reminders that interrupt focus

The effect is cumulative. Five open loops might be manageable. Fifty becomes paralyzing.

Identifying Your Open Loops

Here's a quick diagnostic. Answer honestly:

1. How many emails in your inbox require a decision or action (not just reading)?
2. How many tasks on your list don't have clear next actions?
3. How many things have you said "yes" to that aren't captured anywhere?
4. How many projects are "active" but haven't been touched in 2+ weeks?
5. How many conversations have you been meaning to have but haven't?

Add these up. If the number is over 20, you likely have significant cognitive overhead from open loops.

Closing Loops: The Three Options

For each open loop, you have exactly three options:

• Do it - If it takes less than 2 minutes, just complete it
• Define it - Clarify the next physical action and capture it
• Drop it - Consciously decide it's not worth doing and let it go

The key word is consciously. Many open loops persist because we never made an explicit decision. We left them in limbo - not doing them, but not releasing them either.

This limbo state is the most expensive. A closed loop (done or dropped) costs nothing. An open loop costs cognitive resources every day.

The "Define It" Problem

Most open loops resist the "define it" option because the next action isn't obvious. Consider this task:

"Figure out the budget situation"

What's the next action? It depends. You might need to:

• Email finance to get current numbers
• Review last quarter's actual spend
• Schedule a meeting with your manager to discuss constraints
• Draft a proposal for reallocation

The loop stays open because determining the next action requires thinking, and thinking feels like effort. So we avoid it, leaving the loop open and paying cognitive rent on it indefinitely.

A Systematic Approach

Here's a practical method for reducing open loop burden:

1. Capture everything - Get all open loops out of your head and into a list
2. Process ruthlessly - For each item: Do, Define, or Drop
3. Review weekly - Prevent new loops from accumulating unnoticed
4. Measure your load - Track how many open items you're carrying

The fourth step is where most systems fail. We capture, process, and review - but we don't measure the actual load we're carrying. Without measurement, we don't notice when it's approaching unsustainable levels.

The Invisible Becomes Visible

The problem with open loops is that they're invisible. You can't manage what you can't see.

Decision Load Index (DLI) attempts to make this visible - to give you a number that reflects the cognitive burden you're carrying. Not to optimize it to zero (some load is natural and healthy), but to know when you're approaching overload.

Because the worst moment to discover you have too many open loops is when you can't function anymore.

A Reflection

Before you move on to the next tab, pause and answer honestly:

How many things are you carrying right now that you haven't consciously decided to carry?

That number - whatever it is - represents cognitive weight you're paying for without realizing it. The question is whether you want to keep paying.