Something I’ve always struggled with is putting things off, especially annoying things that have to be done but have some kind of friction in the process. I’ll end up putting them off, and eventually these things start to stack up.

What’s hard to notice is how much energy this is stealing from us when we do this. Our brain is trying to keep track of all these loose ends, and more keep getting added. As more pile on, more energy is needed to keep track of all of it.

There are two things that I’m working on that I’m finding helpful. One is adopting a “do it now” mentality with something that doesn’t take long. If a task will only take a couple of minutes, just knock it out and free up some mental bandwidth. The other one is a brain dump.

There are a fair amount of nights when I wake up around 3 a.m. with my mind racing. Rather than lie there trying to force myself back to sleep, I’ll get up and write down all the things my mind is putting in front of me.

A lot of times, the things that I wake up thinking about are all these loose ends.

Close the loops and free up your mind.

— Bus