> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://mitchellens.ink/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Making closure a practice - URL: https://mitchellens.ink/systems/advance/making-closure-a-practice/ - Published: 2026-03-29T12:02:53.000Z - Updated: 2026-05-15T10:04:44.000Z - Description: Understanding the Advance Filter is one thing. Keeping it alive in real situations is another. Closing a loop once is not that difficult, especially now that you have this framework. Keeping your system stable over time is where the real work begins. - Author: Mitchel Lensink - Tags: Advance, Systems So what destabilizes that progress over time? It is drift. And drift is not dramatic. It is subtle, gradual, and *almost* reasonable while it is happening. That's exactly what makes this difficult. Let me explain what I mean by that. 💡 ****Drift** Drift is **the structural condition in which loops expand beyond their original scope*. The results being that boundaries become unclear, and no loops are closing within a reasonable timeframe. It is identified by **ongoing activity without completion* and by **the absence of recent feedback*. Let's start by saying that I unfortunately had to learn this the hard way. Not through theory, as you're doing right now (although I imagine you have some real life examples of your own too. Otherwise, why would you be reading this to begin with), but through watching my own projects slowly lose their edges over time. There was a period where I had this framework open in one tab, a brand document for a side-project in another, notes for a newsletter in Obsidian, and a half-written page on my site waiting to be published. Every document felt important. Every one felt almost done. None of them were actually finished though. I remember sitting at my desk late at night, technically productive, yet unable to point to a single closed loop. I was moving, but I was not *advancing* (see what I did there). *That* was drift. Not collapse, because that would make this much easier to deal with. That would be a clearer sign I was not focussing on the right things. Experiencing drift is difficult because it's sneaky and it hides itself. It's a slow dilution of your efforts and a draining of your energy. And it happens, you know. This is part of the messy world we live in. Loops quietly reopen, scope stretches beyond what you first agreed to, boundaries become less clear, ownership becomes vague. Small tasks stack up until the weight feels strangely familiar. "How did I get here, again?" you suddenly ask yourself. For me, it often *looked* like I was taking my responsibility. Adding one more paragraph to a draft to ensure I could not be misunderstood. Expanding the scope of a project slightly so it would be more complete, more finished, more perfect. Keeping something going just a *little* longer so it could become a better thing. If you read the earlier chapters of this framework, you know this pattern already. The desire to reduce social risk. The urge to protect yourself from being seen as premature or wrong, from looking like a fool. None of that feels reckless. It feels like you're being careful, well-considered. But being careful can cause the drift you want to avoid as well. This drift from your original goals or commitments rarely announces itself: "Hello! Time to get distracted and focus on the wrong things again!" As I said, it does not feel like things are collapsing. You typically don't even notice it at first. Instead, it feels like being *slightly* off. Like something you can 'quickly fix, if you need to.' But that course correction can't come soon enough, for you drift a little further away as long as you don't take control. Until, one day, you suddenly recognize the pattern and realize you are back in a place you thought you had already moved on from. This chapter is about noticing that drift early, and correcting it before your structure fragments again. This chapter will help you turn your newly learned skills into a practice, even when things in real life become complicated. The Advance Filter from the previous chapter is your tool, this chapter will tell you when to use it. This is where you will learn how to become a serial closer of loops in a world that keeps opening new ones for you. ## When drift begins ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8a/15/8a1564aa-a008-4e21-8398-12d04de07fcb/content/images/2026/04/advance-when-drift-begins.jpeg) Your plans or projects almost never fall apart all at once. They typically erode under specific conditions. But worry not, for there are signals! They are quiet, but they are consistent. This will take some practice, but over time you'll develop a sense for them. To start, watch for these three early signs: ### First: You are active, but nothing is finishing You are working on multiple things, but none of them are moving toward a clear ending. Documents stay open. Tasks remain in progress. Energy is spent, but nothing is really finishing. ### Second: There has been no real feedback in a while Ask yourself when you last released something into the world. When did someone respond to your work? If nothing has shipped then nobody can provide you any feedback. And with no response, that often means no closure. ### Third: You are waiting more than acting You are blocked on someone else’s reply. Someone else’s approval. Someone else’s input. The question becomes: what is still within your own boundary of responsibility? What can you close without them? When one of these shows up, it is a signal. When two or three show up together, you are already drifting. Here is the structural summary to keep in mind: - Too many loops open at the same time - No recent feedback because nothing shipped - Work is happening, but nothing finishes - Scope expands mid-process - You are waiting more than acting These signals do not mean you chose the wrong direction. They mean loops are not closing properly right now. And by now, you know what that implies: when loops do not close, learning stalls. Progress depends on feedback, and feedback depends on closure. If you can spot these signals early, you can intervene early. The Drift Check is how you do that. ### The Drift Check **Drift is rarely emotional at first. It is structural.** That's why it's so hard to notice, because you usually don't think, "I have abandoned my chosen path." You think, "Why does this suddenly feel messy?" The Drift Check translates that mess into structure. When things feel heavy, unclear, or slightly out of your control, do not immediately rethink your entire direction but run this check instead. #### Step 1: Identify the unstable loop or loops A loop can be anything ranging from a simple task, a larger project, or an idea floating around in your head. These loops can become 'unstable' over time, meaning they no longer have a clearly defined scope or end to them. To combat this, ask yourself: 1. Which loops are still open? 2. Which loops expanded beyond their original boundary? 3. Which loops are not actually mine? 4. Which loops have no clear definition of done? There may be more than one. In fact, drift accelerates when multiple loops are open without closure. Name them concretely. The project. The document. The decision. The conversation. #### Step 2: Apply a structural correction - Shrink the scope back to what this loop was meant to produce (return to the specific outcome it was created for.) - Define a concrete, testable definition of 'done' (sometimes this simply means reinstating the original finish line.) - Remove work that is not yours (let other people do their part, while you do yours.) - Close a smaller version of the loop if the full version feels too large (if things feel overwhelming, it likely means there's smaller steps to take, in order to take the big one. Focus on the one in front of you.) There is no fixed number of loops you are allowed to have open. Capacity differs. What matters is not the number of open loops, but the volume you are able to close consistently. You can open new loops, as long as others are actually finishing. The Drift Check is not about finding a new direction. It is about restoring integrity to the direction you already chose. If you notice a sense of clarity returning after shrinking down your loops, you were most likely drifting. If confusion remains, you may need a different loop entirely. **Relief usually follows reduction rather than expansion.** ## Continue, pause, or stop? ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8a/15/8a1564aa-a008-4e21-8398-12d04de07fcb/content/images/2026/04/advance-continue-pause-or-stop-.jpeg) This section helps you decide whether to continue, pause, or stop the loop you are working on. Not based on mood or motivation, but based on feedback. Humans regulate effort by tracking progress. When movement toward a defined outcome becomes visible, we persist. When progress stalls but the obstacle is clear, we adjust. When no progress is visible and no obstacle can be named, we disengage or drift. A loop is healthy when it produces feedback. Feedback does not have to be applause, metrics, or external validation. It can be something simpler and more powerful: **increased clarity about what to do next**. What you are really testing is this: did reality push back? Did something become sharper? More defined? More constrained? Feedback is what moves the mist. It does not remove uncertainty entirely. It narrows it. A closed step, a defined obstacle, a clearer constraint. These are small gusts of wind. They do not clear the horizon. They simply make the next few meters visible. The question is not: *How do I feel?* The question is: *What did this loop teach me that I did not know before?* Every time you work on a loop, you should end up with at least one of these: - A closed step within the loop. - A clearly defined next action inside the loop. - A clearly defined obstacle preventing closure. If none of these appear, the loop is structurally unstable. And instability is not something you fix with more effort. It is something you test. This is where the Feedback Check begins. ### The Feedback Check When you step away from a loop, write down in one sentence: 1. What exactly did I just do? 2. What exactly is the next visible action? 3. What exactly is blocking closure? Then decide: - If you closed something or the next step is obvious → continue the loop. - If the obstacle is clear but unresolved → pause and narrow the loop. - If you cannot clearly answer any of the three → stop and run the Drift Check before adding more effort. **Continue when the last session produced feedback**. A step closed, the next action is visible, or the constraint sharpened. Something changed. Keep going. **Pausing can be strategic**. When the obstacle you're facing is clear but you don't know how to solve it yet, stepping away can be a good strategy. Simply by *not* focussing on the issue for a while, you let your subconscious brain work on it in the background. Yes, this is a real thing and it's supported by scientific research. It's called incubation and it allows you to return to a task after some recalibration time, where you latently allowed some alternative patterns, associations, and, hopefully, solutions to surface. **Stop when no feedback appears and no obstacle can be named**. If you cannot say what changed, what is next, or what is blocking you, the loop is unstable. At that point, it does not make sense to put more effort into things. Take one step back. run the Drift Check and redefine your goals before continuing. ## Rhythm creates stability Progress depends less on doing things perfect and more on getting things done. As you know by now, finishing things creates momentum. It turns effort into something visible and usable. Direction follows from that. In practice, this just means you need things to come to an end, regularly. Doing your work flawlessly is nice, but bringing your work to a point where it's done is nicer. Try to commit to finishing one meaningful thing every week. A difficult conversation initiated. A proposal submitted. A decision made and acted on. A draft shared instead of stored. It does not have to be perfect. Just make sure you actually *do something*. > Progress depends less on doing things perfect and more on getting things done. Weekly cycles work well because they shorten the gap between starting and finishing, therefore compress the feedback cycle, and as a result make completion more achievable. It's a way to force contact with reality. You either ship or you do not. ## Reflection is integration Okay, so you're doing the work. You keep an eye on all the things you have going, you make sure to not inflate things, you regularly label things as 'done' and you constantly receive some form of feedback from the world. Great. Now what? Time to add the final step: reflection. Because **if you reflect on the work you've done, you make sure you actually learn from the feedback you're given.** Closing your loops without reflection gets the job done, that's true. But if you close your loops and reflect on the results that's given you, *that's* what creates growth. So after closing a loop, take five quiet minutes and ask yourself: - What worked? - What did not? - What surprised me? - What drained me? - What excited me enough to continue? **Some of my biggest learnings came from small reflections**. Realizing that certain types of exposure consistently created clarity. Noticing that over-preparing drained energy without really increasing the outcome. Seeing that hesitation often disguised itself as sophistication, but in reality I was just procrastinating. Most of the things I feared where some social awkwardness, not a catastrophe I could never recover from. It helps to remember that you are not extracting some sort of grand meaning here. You are merely updating your internal map of where you want to go, and how you want to get there. So reflect a little, and allow that map to become more accurate over time. ## What progress actually looks like Earlier in this framework we talked about the concept of 'mist' and used it as an analogy for how it allows you to only see a short distance ahead. You do not clear the mist by thinking harder in which direction to go. You clear it by walking, checking, adjusting, and walking again. There was no dramatic turning point for me to realize this. No day where everything suddenly aligned. Instead, it was this: make sure you finish something, in order to get a slightly clearer picture of your surroundings, adjust slightly based on what you've learned, repeat. Do this for a long time, and your original direction can look entirely different. And that's not because of some revelation, but because of repetition. You close a loop, you learn something, you adjust, you close another. Which leads me to conclude: limited visibility is not the problem. Open loops are. ## Closing the loop When I look back at periods in my life where I felt stuck, I do not see lack of talent or lack of ambition. I see open loops everywhere. Decisions only half made, scopes of projects too vaguely defined, waiting for others without clear boundaries. I was protecting myself against imagined risks instead of choosing manageable ones. If that sounds familiar then you too want to become a serial loop-closer. Because closing loops is what gives you the feedback required to learn about the world around you, to determine how you fit in that world, and what path you want to follow in it. A few weeks ago, I hit publish on something that still felt slightly unfinished. My instinct was to continue working on it, add nuance, tighten the language. Instead, I let it go. It's up to the world to respond now. Some parts might land, some might not, and that's fine. The essence is that real progress happens *outside* your head. This was always the point. You do not need to be certain of every possible variable to start moving. You just need to make sure you're able to finish what you start. So maintain your rhythm, protect your boundaries, and close those loops. If this framework has done its job, you now have something you can use the next time you can feel yourself drifting. It's not a belief system, it's not a rigid structure, nor a motivational tool. It's simply a set of questions to ask yourself. Uncertainty will still be there. Discomfort will still show up. Some loops will still try to expand. But now you will recognize it sooner when that happens and you know how to handle those situations. You will shrink what needs shrinking. You will close what can close. And you will learn from what happens next. You do not need to feel ready. You only need to begin closing loops, let in real world feedback, adjust, and continue.