Closing the Open Loops
Do you know that feeling when you realize you have too many browser tabs open? One tab is playing music. Another has the recipe you meant to save. Six contain things you were going to order. Nine are related to the work you are trying to complete, and somewhere in the mix is the article you started reading two weeks ago but are curiously unwilling to close.
According to researchers, our minds can work much the same way.
Psychologists sometimes use the phrase “open loops” to describe unfinished tasks that continue taking up mental space: the text you still need to answer, the appointment you need to schedule, the package you need to return, the drawer you need to fix, the conversation you need to have.
Florence Friebe, cohost of the podcast "2 Curly Haired Girls With ADHD," began noticing her own open loops after learning the phrase. One of them was remarkably small: a hole in the pocket of her jacket. She kept forgetting to repair it, only to remember again every time her keys or phone slipped through.
The hole itself was minor. The repeated mental interruption was not.
Friebe began to realize how many unfinished things were quietly demanding her attention. And psychologists who study procrastination say she was onto something. Dr. Fuschia Sirois, a professor of social and health psychology at Durham University in England who has studied procrastination for 25 years, notes that we often delay tasks because we anticipate the discomfort involved in doing them. Unfortunately, avoiding the task does not necessarily make the discomfort disappear. Sometimes it leaves the task running in the background, which can lead to exhaustion and chronic health problems.
One strategy Friebe found helpful was comically simple: Take each next step in the tiniest increments imaginable. She described people trying to establish a gym habit who began by simply driving to the gym, for example. Later they drove there wearing workout clothes. Eventually they went inside for five minutes. The goal was to learn, little by little, that they could take the next step.
What if today does not require a completed goal or a crossed-off checklist? What if all you need to do is close one loop? ... Send the text. Make the appointment. Return the package. Sew the pocket. Put the date on the calendar. Take the first five-minute step toward the thing that has been quietly following you around. And then give yourself permission to close the tab.
Our summer sermon series, "Names of God: Knowing the One Who Knows Us," has offered a reminder each week that the names of God point us away from the illusion that everything depends upon us: God is I AM, present before we have figured everything out; God is El Roi, the God who sees us; God is El Shaddai, God Almighty; God is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides; God is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals; God is Jehovah Nissi, our banner; and God is Jehovah Tsidkenu, our righteousness.
We will always have unfinished business. But God’s faithfulness does not depend on our ability to finish everything.
So close a loop today if you can. Take one tiny step. Free up a little brain space. And remember the God who has been there all along -- seeing, providing, healing, leading, and making right what we cannot make right on our own.