I felt a bit more stressed out than usual yesterday and was trying to figure out the cause. I realized I’d left too many “open loops.” Open loops are unfinished tasks that are floating around in your head. I believe I learned this concept from the book Getting Things Done. If you leave too many loops open, they start to take a toll on your mental state.
The idea is to sit down and do what they refer to as a brain dump. Take all of the tasks living in your head and write them down. Everything you can think of. Get it out of your head and onto paper or into a digital doc. This alone can free up some stress because your brain no longer has to keep track of all of these tasks.
The obvious next step is to start knocking them out. If the list is overwhelming, just handle the easy ones first. Checking them off will relieve more stress and build momentum. Once a few are checked off, you’ll probably start to feel the motivation to clear the list.
— Bus