94. Stop Feeling Overwhelmed: Productivity Tips to Finally Close Open Tasks

Are you constantly thinking about unfinished tasks while you're trying to focus (or relax)? 🧠 You're not alone! In this episode, we're diving deep into the sneaky productivity killer that's exhausting so many of us — open loops.

I’ll explain exactly what open loops are, how they quietly drain your mental energy, and most importantly, how to finally close them (without getting sucked into rabbit holes or perfectionism).

We'll tackle:
✅ The difference between open loops and healthy task management
✅  Why SLPs and busy moms are especially prone to open loops
✅  The balance between starting tasks in small pockets of time and keeping loops from piling up
✅  Real talk on perfectionism and people-pleasing (because they're sneaky loop-creators too!)
✅  Practical, doable strategies to finally close your loops — and keep them closed!

Whether you're an SLP juggling reports and session notes, a busy mom spinning too many plates, or just someone trying to reclaim your mental space, this episode will give you the tools you need to breathe easier and work smarter.

Links & Resources:
🔗 Join the FREE SLP Support Group on Facebook
🔗 Snag your spot for 1:1 productivity coaching 
🔗 Loved this episode? Share it with a friend or screenshot and tag me in the FB Group so I can cheer you on!

Timestamps: 
0:00 - Intro
2:10 - What are open loops and why do they matter?
5:45 - The mental weight of unfinished tasks
10:00 - How to close loops without falling into rabbit holes
14:30 - Progress over perfection: Closing loops even if it’s not perfect
18:00 - The balance between quick task starting and intentional completion
22:00 - Practical takeaways and your loop-closing challenge!

Beofre You Go!
If you loved this episode, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a productivity boost! And hey, come share your "loop wins" with us in the Facebook group — I love celebrating with you.

To find out how I can help you improve your work-life balance, click here.

Come join the SLP Support Group on Facebook for more tips and tricks!

Follow me on Instagram! @theresamharp

Learn more about Theresa Harp Coaching here.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to Work-Life Balance for Speech Pathologists. I'm Theresa Harp, an SLP and Productivity Coach, and this podcast is all about how to build a successful career as an SLP and still have time for yourself and the people and things you love. So if you're ready to ditch stress and burnout for a more balanced and fulfilling life, then you are in the right place. Let's dive in.

Hey everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. It is so good to be here with you in this two dimensional world. On this screen, I'm imagining that we are hanging out maybe over coffee or a glass of wine and just chit-chatting about some of my favorite topics, which are productivity, time management, personal development, all those sorts of things.

So hopefully. That's how it feels for you too. And I am going to be [00:01:00] touching on a topic today that is actually related to what we were talking about during last week's episode. So I don't know if you've heard it, but last week's episode, episode 93, we talked about. Three of the biggest productivity traps or time sucks that people get caught up in.

And one of those was task copying. And it's interesting because I was poking around in the SLP support group on Facebook, and it really seemed like task copying was the big. The big one for all of you. For those of you in the group, it really hit home and I've been reading your messages. I've been looking at the posts that were in the group and we had a poll going.

And I had some personal conversations with my coaching clients and a couple of family members too, and [00:02:00] it really does seem like this is task copying is something that we all really struggle with. And what we're gonna do today is zoom in. Even closer on that topic. So if you have ever heard of the, the phrase open loops or close the loops, that's what we're gonna be talking about today.

And this, whether you realize it or not, is very much related to task copy. I kind of see these as going hand in hand. So when you have a lot of open loops, you tend to do more task copying and. It's interesting too, the more you task hop, the more open loops you tend to have. And if we can learn to close more of these loops, what happens is we have more clarity, more sanity, more peace of mind.

We start to get our energy [00:03:00] back and our focus back. It can really make a tremendous difference. Now, if you have no idea what I'm talking about with open loops, that is fine. Let me just explain it to you in a way that hopefully you know that this way we'll all have a similar idea. We're all on the same page as we're talking through this topic.

So the way that I think of open loops, I think of them as incomplete tasks or decisions. They're basically. Any activity or decision that you have to make that you've started but you haven't yet finished. And you can think of this like your internet browser when you, you know, you'll, you'll hear people joke, oh, I have too many tabs open.

Right? Raise your hand if you can relate. I'm raising my hand. So we, we joke about that. Actually, I'm laughing because. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, [00:04:00] 8, 9. I have nine tabs open right now and those are just my coaching tabs. I have a fun little, uh, program called Work Kona that I use that helps me to categorize my tabs, but that is a topic for another day.

I don't actually see a big problem with this per se, but I. I know that many of you will joke that you have too many tabs open. Now, the tabs that I have open at the moment, literally the tabs open on my browser, I am in, I'm using them right now. They're actually open loops. So if you think of a tab as an open loop, that's essentially.

What we're talking about here, right? Every time that you start a task, but you don't finish it, it's like opening a new tab. And we all know that when you have too many open tabs, everything [00:05:00] starts to slow down. You start to feel overwhelmed. You can't remember where you were or what you had. This. Tab four, what you, what you were working on, where you left off.

Sometimes you can't even realize where the sound is coming from. Okay. So for me, I know when I have a lot, a lot of open tabs, I'll start listening to something or watching a video and I'll pop out of that tab, but it's still running in the background. And so I can hear the sound, but I can't find the tab.

That has the sound. You know what I mean? Right. If you know, you know. Okay. And I wanna help you with this because let's be honest, for those of us as SLPs PCs, ocs, as parents, as just humans, when we are wearing so many hats, we cannot wear them. Well. We cannot [00:06:00] do. An effective job and feel good about the job that we are doing, and I want to give you some strategies and some resources that are going to help you with closing the loops.

Okay? But before we do that, I really just want to illustrate for you. Why these open loops are problematic, or I should say, when they become problematic, and I think you can probably reflect on your own experience with these open loops or lots of tabs and probably come up with some ways that it is working.

Against you. But if you think about this, like these open loops are essentially unfinished to-dos and your brain is holding onto them. And [00:07:00] so in your mind, your brain, whether it's consciously or subconsciously, your brain is keeping those open loops active. They might not always be, you might not be aware.

You know, they, they not be, they may not always be top of mind. You may not always be aware, but those tabs are running in the background. They're still there, they're still open, they're running in the background, and that's draining your focus. It's draining your energy. You might even notice that at night before you're going to bed, you might find yourself thinking things like, oh shoot.

Did I cancel that appointment? Did I reschedule this one? Did I email that parent back? Did I finish scoring that evaluation? That is the open loop effect. Those are all open loops in your mind. Okay, now this episode. Is going to give you strategies to close more loops and help you finish what you start without feeling like [00:08:00] you are working constantly and signing up to be uber, uber productive, burning out and overwhelmed.

That's not the goal. All right, so I'm gonna walk you through a few different strategies and give you some suggestions and ideas of how to make these strategies. Work for you. Alright, so the first strategy that I've got for you is called the OneTouch Rule. And a lot of you have probably heard of this rule before, or some version of it might be called something different.

But it is essentially the idea that you're only going to handle a task once. So if you are going to start a task, only start it when you can finish it essentially. And. I've got a lot of thoughts about this one, so stay with me. If you are one of those people that has objections right now in your brain, I'm going to address them, so stay with me.

Okay? Now, the idea behind the only, uh, the, the OneTouch rule is, like I said, that you're only gonna do that [00:09:00] task once. Let me give you an example of where I break this rule constantly, and I always regret it. I am. I don't wanna say, let's say I, I often feel compelled to check email on my phone, but I always dislike responding to email on my phone.

I don't know, call me old fashioned. I don't know what it is, but I like to sit down at the computer and be able to type things out rather than typing a response on a keyboard. It just, I'll do it, but I'd rather. I'd rather, I'm sorry, rather than typing a response on the keyboard of my phone, which I can do and I will do, but I'd rather do it on the big screen.

Right. But sometimes I feel compelled to check my email anyway. And here's what often happens. I open the email, I read it, and I don't respond. But I. [00:10:00] Close the phone or I get sidetracked or interrupted and I now forget I move on to something else. I forget about that email until probably like two o'clock in the morning when I wake up and I remember, and I'm sort of joking here, but essentially I have opened the email once.

I've read the email once. Now I might even be on occasion. That email might be popping up in my mind. I might be struggling over how to respond, when to respond, what to say, and it's just running like a program, an open program, an open tab in my mind, whether I realize it or not. Sometimes that means that I completely forget the tab is even open.

I might totally forget. I might totally forget about the email. Never go back to it until. You know, something happens and I realize I, I missed something. I dropped a ball, and then I'm like, oh my gosh, I totally forget. I totally forgot about that. Or here's [00:11:00] another example. I had a survey that I really wanted to fill out.

It was from a coaching experience from back in December. This survey was sent to me. I saw it on my phone. I even marked it as unread so that I would go back to it. I wouldn't miss it. Oh, I can't fill out this survey now, but I'm gonna go, I'm gonna get back to it and I'm gonna mark it unread so that I will see it next time.

Okay. Well that's all good and great, except that I've got about a thousand and something unread messages in that particular email address. I don't use that one for. For, you know. Uh, like everyday tasks, I don't, I don't use that email address, and I forgot all about it until two days ago when I was having a conversation with a colleague of mine and.

It came up in conversation and I panicked. Oh my gosh. I never responded to that email. I never finished the survey. Wait, [00:12:00] did I finish the survey? Then I had to go back, dig through my email, find it, figure out did I respond, did I not respond? I didn't respond, by the way. So then I filled out. The survey just to get it done and close the loop, but this is the risk that we take when we don't follow that one touch rule, because now I've had multiple touches with this task, right?

And it took me months to get it done. So that whole trick of, oh mark, the email is unread and I'll come back to it. No, no. Didn't work for me. Doesn't usually work for my A DHD brain. It's just not how, not in that email inbox anyway. Maybe some other email inboxes, but not mine. So that is an example of how.

When I don't use the OneTouch rule, it often works against me. Had I not opened the email to begin with, right? I knew the survey was coming, but had I not opened it and just held onto it and put something in my calendar to get it done, that would've [00:13:00] been it. It would've been one and done, and that's the end of that loop.

It's closed. But for those of you who are sitting here thinking, well, Theresa, I. Would love to do the OneTouch rule, but I know that I'm gonna get sucked down a rabbit hole if I try this. How do I know I'm not gonna get, you know, sucked into something that's going to take a lot of time. It's gonna take me away from what I'm working on and I.

Here is the truth about this rule. This rule works beautifully when you apply it to things that are quick, easy, simple, bite-sized tasks. Send the email, send the RSVP sign, the permission slip. Those types of tasks are great for the OneTouch rule. They're not so great for the bigger tasks, like filling out a survey, writing a full report.

Right? So for those types of tasks, I want you to think [00:14:00] what's the next best step to move this forward? Okay. So for those bigger tasks, you're just identifying the next quick step. I am thinking of Anna from Frozen when she sings or frozen two, when she sings the next right thing. I don't know if you remember that one, but, or if you have kids, but my girls used to watch that when they were little, and that's what I'm thinking of.

You wanna take the next, is it the next right step? I'm forgetting what the words are if you know, you know, but essentially you wanna be like Anna and just do the next right thing. The one next right thing. Not all of the things. Just the one thing or not at all, but make a note to come back to it. Okay.

Because what happens is if you. If you use this for things, what if you use this rule for tasks where you really aren't able to get it done in one touch, you're setting yourself up for failure. [00:15:00] All right? So this is a great strategy, but it's only great when you use it in the appropriate circumstances, and you'll have to sort of think that through and figure out, okay.

What would work best for this? What types of tasks would work best for the strategy? But like I said, I really think it's those little simple tasks like quick little responses, getting it done. Close the loop. Alright, so that's the first strategy that I have for you. The second one. And I'm mentioning this because if you've listened to me for a while, if you've been listening to the podcast, if you are are a client of mine, if you're in the SOP support group, you know I am a big proponent of just starting a task, right?

So this sounds a little counterintuitive, like the power of the one touch rule. It sounds a little, it sounds a little counterintuitive. It goes against what I've recommended before, but. I want to [00:16:00] share this second strategy with you, which is getting things started, and again, similar to that one touch rule, you have to think about which types of tasks are appropriate for this strategy.

Okay? Because I always say, if you are waiting until you have the perfect amount of time, or you're in the right mindset, or you have the right amount of energy to finish a certain task, chances are you'll never get going and that still holds true regardless of this topic of open loops. I still believe that that is true.

And I also believe that one of the ways to overcome this is to start a task, because starting creates that momentum. It puts you into action. And we all know an object in motion stays in motion, right? So if you're starting the task, you're creating that momentum. But this strategy that we're talking about here is [00:17:00] the next level.

Because once you have opened up that loop. Right. If you're starting a task, you are essentially opening the loop. If you are doing this mindfully. You will want to build in time to go back and close that loop. So it's going to be an open loop that you are motivated to close. It's not the type of open loop that you are avoiding, dreading, unsure of, and you're just, or forgetting all about like this is a loop that you are starting, but you're.

Staying. You're staying connected or tethered to it in some way, and the way that you do this is by identifying the next step. It's by identifying, okay, I've started this task. Yes, this is an open loop. What do I need to do to close the loop? What's the next thing I have to do to close the loop? Sometimes it might just be one next step.[00:18:00] 

Sometimes it might be multiple things. I only want you to identify the next step. And that will help you to anchor in and close the loop when the time is right, when you decide to go back and close it. So maybe you start the progress note today and you finish it tomorrow. Maybe you create a kind of. Loop closing time block, essentially, it's like this time block in your day could be 20 minutes, it could be an hour.

You get to decide where, okay, for this amount of time, I'm going back and I'm closing some of my open loops. What are the things that I have to have to finish? What are the things that need, what are the open loops that need to be closed? And then when that time comes, that's what you go in and you do. And remember, this is not about perfection.

It's about making sure that the starts, the things that you start eventually reach the finish line. So you are opening the loop and you are [00:19:00] planning out how and when you're going to close it. Is that clear? All right, so that's the second strategy that I have for you. And then the third one that I have for you.

And this is gonna be a little bit more uncomfortable maybe, so stay with me. Because this third strategy is all about addressing the underlying reason or reasons behind the open loops, because let's face it, in a lot of cases, those open loops are not about time. They're not just about needing the time to do it.

They're mostly about emotion. A lot of these open loops that we have are emotional. You might find yourself leaving tasks unfinished because. Oh my gosh, there's a million reasons. Number one, maybe you don't like how it's going. You don't like how it's turning out. [00:20:00] Okay. Hello, perfectionism right there. Or maybe you are keeping an open loop instead of closing it when it comes to a report because you're worried about how it's going to be received by the parent or by the administration.

And so that's some people pleasing, that's creeping in. It might be because you are afraid to face what people think, what or what you, what people might think about something. So this comes up for me sometimes with invitations, decisions about. Going somewhere. There are times when I, and not just for me, like where I have to decide for my kids or for my family, there are times when I will see the invitation and then I will keep that loop open.

I, I avoid it. I avoid going back, not because I can't find the time to go back and close the loop, but because I am, you know, [00:21:00] overthinking. Is this something that we can do? Is this something that we wanna do? What is this gonna require of us? What, what, you know, logistics am I gonna have to work out? So there's um, there's some things there that can creep in and, you know, might be.

Interfering with my ability to close the loop from the get go or to return to that open loop to close it. And I see this with so many of you. I see this in the SLP support group. I see this with my coaching clients. I see this again in myself. It's not about procrastinating. You are not procrastinating, you're not lazy, you're not.

Inept or unqualified to do these things. It's just that you are emotional. There are emotions, there are feelings that you don't want to feel. There's feelings that you wanna avoid. Sometimes we do this when things feel hard. Sometimes we do this when things feel [00:22:00] confusing. It comes up in lots of different ways.

And so the strategy here is to ask yourself, what is the root cause here? What is the, the. The hurdle or the obstacle that's causing the tension, and that's blocking me from going, going back and closing that loop. And once you identify what that is, you can work through it. With the mi, with mindset, you can work through it by thinking about things like, okay, progress over perfection, or I get to decide how I'm gonna spend my time.

I don't need to worry about what people are thinking. I never truly know what people are thinking. You can kind of work through, depending upon what those root causes are, work through some sort of mantra, affirmation, reframe something that will help you to overcome that hurdle. Right. So this is something that we do in coaching all the time.

It's like, okay, we look at what is the root cause here, [00:23:00] and we look for ways that we can reframe it. We look for ways where that same root cause has come up in other places and how it was overcome in those scenarios, and try to apply some of that to this scenario. There's lots of different ways that we can work with this, but if you are.

Avoiding those root causes and just under the, the misconception that open loops are purely because you don't have enough time, you're missing the mark. Even when you have enough time, you will still have open loops, and this is how we get real lasting success. Okay, so remember, it's progress over perfection.

Done is better than perfect, and you don't need it to be perfect. Done is good enough. All right. Okay, so my challenge for you this week is to get curious. Where are your open loops hiding? Where are they showing up? Where are you [00:24:00] noticing them? Where did you not even realize they were and now you found them?

Is it in your home? Is it in your inbox? Is it on your desk? Is it in your documentation? I want you to identify those and pick one area. You're gonna pick one area where you've got open loops, and I'm gonna challenge you to try to close three of them. Just three. Okay? Remember, quick winds matter, little drops of water, make a mighty ocean, or whatever the heck the saying is.

I never remember how the wording to that one goes, but I love the sentiment. It's not about major, major accomplishments. This is about small. Actions that compound to peace of mind. They compound to work life balance and. Obviously, make sure that you're in the SLP support group so we can celebrate your wins.

We love to celebrate them. No win is [00:25:00] too small. It is the small wins that lead to the big wins. So if you're not in the SLP support group, click the link in the show notes and join. You have got this. You've totally got this. You're not behind. You are not lazy. You are not unorganized. You are not. Any of those things, your brain just has a lot of open tabs and we're closing them one by one.

Alright? So definitely pop into the SLP support group, let us know how we can support you, and I will see you all next week. Bye.