Are you “thinking about” taking some additional training or going to a particular event?

You know it would be valuable, which is why you haven’t said no, but you haven’t said yes, yet, either.

That’s an example of an “open loop.”

An open loop is anything where you don’t have a date, you don’t have a decision, or you don’t have a plan for how some kind of decision or choice is going to get tied down.

The problem is that nothing can happen until you make a decision yes or no. Until you close that loop, you can’t move forward, and you can’t move on either.

Open loops are huge drains on your energy.

Our brains are wired to get things done and they love completion, so when something is hanging out there as a possibility, it’s going to keep recurring in our minds until we resolve it.

That’s why in our business we came up with a simple tool to close our open loops in team meetings, and it can help you close yours too.

During a meeting we put an idea on the table, we talk about it, we create the vision for it, but then before the end of every meeting or call, we make sure to ask, “Okay, great, and who’s doing what by when?” Then we secure commitments to everything we are truly ready to advance.

That doesn’t mean the project is done, but, in our minds, we’ve got a person and a date, so we know who’s accountable for it and when to come back to it.

Just make sure to allow enough time to get all the accountability squared away. You want to leave 10 to 15 minutes at the end of an hour-long meeting to close all of your loops or consciously let them go.