This page was translated from Dutch with AI.
Every to-do opens a little loop in your head
In a training session on meetings, I asked the group to raise their hands. Who had ever received a to-do in a meeting, and had to say in the next one: 'I had no time, I have not got round to it yet'? Almost all hands went up. One participant kept his hand neatly down. I congratulated him, because apparently he had it completely under control.
You probably recognise this. And that is not just down to you. Sometimes there are circumstances or systems that just hold you back. What I show in the training is how such a to-do actually works in your head. When you see that, it becomes easier to do something about it.
At the bottom of this article you will find a prompt to line up your own open loops. Feel free to copy it.
This is how a loop runs in your head
During a meeting you get a to-do. The minutes say that you will do it, by next Tuesday. At that moment a little loop opens in your head. And it starts running. Then it is Thursday, and you still have not been able to finish that loop. Then it is Friday, and you think: damn, I have had no time this week. And then it is Monday, and it has to be done first thing. But on Monday, of course, all the other things arrive on your plate too.
And that does not just apply to that one to-do. Every email, every question from a colleague, every assignment from your manager, every question from a customer: they are all triggers. We actually walk around all day with open loops in our heads. Some you close in a few seconds, with a short answer. Others take days, and some never get finished. And that causes an enormous amount of stress, even if you do not immediately call it that.
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