In GTD (Getting Things Done), there's an emphasis on 'closing loops', which means to get things out of your head into an external system that you trust is useful enough that your brain stops thinking about it in your subconscious.

The purpose of this is to be able to remove the extra cycles on things that are not required to think about. This reduces stress mostly, and is a very freeing feeling when done completely.

The important part is that the braindump needs to go into a system (Systems keep you doing the most important work) that you know will give the proper attention to the dumped information.

For example, if you write it on a sticky note, but you know that putting it on a sticky note will have no lasting effect on the thing getting resolved, then the loop is not closed. You've only shifted the burden from the single item to an ambiguous number of unfinished sticky notes.

More helpfully, it would be good to put it into a system that you know will address the task, even if that's not soon. Something like a prioritized and groomed backlog, or a tagged #GTD master list.

• Open loops foster creative problem-solving

#toolong