> ## 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. # The Advance Filter - URL: https://mitchellens.ink/systems/advance/the-advance-filter/ - Published: 2026-03-25T19:41:39.000Z - Updated: 2026-05-15T10:04:36.000Z - Description: Going from chaos to clarity in a few simple steps. That's what we'll do here. Don't expect any growth or productivity hacks. These are simple, scientifically-grounded, concrete, applicable things you can do today to get unstuck and start advancing in life again. - Author: Mitchel Lensink - Tags: Advance, Systems Most decisions don’t fail because they were wrong. They fail because they never became real. You don’t need certainty to move. You need a decision that can close. This is the filter to achieve those things. Not a productivity trick. Not a checklist to obsess over. But a way to shorten doubt so you can **develop a bias towards action**, not perfection. The Advance Filter is useful for: - projects - ideas - career directions - collaborations - conversations Whatever you're working on or doing that tends to become complicated over time, possibly getting you stuck somewhere in the process, run it through the Advance Filter and find the clarity you need in those moments. The concept is simple: **A good decision is not necessarily correct. A good decision ensures you can finish something.** The way you achieve that? A couple of simple questions to ask yourself, and some exercises to guide you to the answers, lead to a decision framework for creative people stuck in overwhelm, but too ambitious to give up. > A decision framework for creative people stuck in overwhelm, but too ambitious to give up. ## The Advance Filter Whenever something feels unresolved, heavy, unclear, or mentally noisy, assume one thing: You’re holding an open loop. An open loop is any commitment, idea, direction, or responsibility that hasn’t reached a clear end. It’s something still running in the background of your mind. Silently hogging resources. Making everything you do a little more difficult than it needs to be. Instead of overthinking your open loops, use these questions to pressure-test and get rid of them: 1. **Can it *close*?** 2. **Is it *small* enough?** 3. **Are the *boundaries* clear?** 4. **Is it *mine*?** 5. **What’s the *real* risk?** We’ll go through them one by one to make them concrete, actionable, and applicable in real life situations. ### 1\. Can it *close*? Before you do anything else, ask yourself: **Does this thing I'm starting or working on have a clear end?** In other words: can this loop be closed? How quickly? And can it be closed by me? If something cannot end, it cannot teach you anything. If it can't teach you anything, you can't make progress. A loop can close when three requirements are present: #### The closure conditions ##### 1) Clear end You can clearly describe when something is done. Even if that's 'just for now.' At this stage, we're not aiming for better, improved, or in progress. Done. 🔍 Here are some examples: ~~Work on the landing page~~ → ****Publish the landing page.** ~~Talk to potential users~~ → ****Complete three conversations.** ~~Keep improving the idea~~ → ****Send a prototype.** ~~Figure out pricing~~ → ****Present an offer to one client.** ~~Keep refining the draft~~ → ****Submit the draft.** If you can’t name the end in one sentence, it’s still too abstract. And if it’s abstract, it won’t close. ##### 2) Contained scope Make sure the decision or commitment you’re making cannot quietly grow bigger once you begin. Scope creep, as it's called, is how most loops stay open. You start with something manageable, but halfway through you add 'just one more thing.' Then another, and another, etcetera. As a result, the finish line keeps moving and you are stuck in a perpetual state of 'nearly there.' A closable loop has edges. 🔍 Here are some more examples: ~~Improve my portfolio~~ → ****Update the homepage with 3 selected projects.** ~~Work on my brand~~ → ****Write a first draft of my positioning statement.** ~~Fix my business model~~ → ****Test one new pricing structure with one client.** ~~Get healthier~~ → ****Train 3 times a week for a month.** If, halfway through a task, you can justify expanding it beyond its original scope without redefining it, the scope was never contained enough before you started. A practical question you can ask yourself when defining your scope would be: "What is explicitly *not* included in this decision?" If the answer is "well… it depends," the scope is still too wide. ##### 3) Structural ownership You control the action that defines 'done.' No waiting for approval. No waiting for consensus. No waiting for 'the right moment.' If someone else must say yes before it counts as complete, ownership of the loop is not structurally yours. 🔍 Again, some examples to make this really clear: ~~Client approves the redesign~~ → ****Redesign delivered to client.** ~~We decide on the direction~~ → ****I present my proposed direction.** ~~Collaboration launches~~ → ****My part of the collaboration completed and sent.** Even when you are not in control of the outcome, you must find a way to control your own actions that are part of that outcome. If one of these three requirements is missing, a loop will stay open and you therefore will get stuck somewhere. If all three of these conditions are present, a loop can resolve. And once it resolves, reality responds, which provides you feedback, so you move forward. ### 2\. Is it *small* enough? Even if something technically has an end, it can still be too large to begin. This is where most commitments get inflated. We assume important things deserve scale. But scale is often what creates hesitation before we even take the first step. #### The Compression Rule Shrink the commitment until it: - can be completed in days, not months. - produces feedback on its own. - does not require a complete reinvention of yourself to execute it. If a decision requires you to 'become someone else' before acting, it’s too big. 🔍 Instead of: ~~"Start a new career direction"~~ Try: ****Send 5 emails to people in that field.** ****Publish one article about this direction.** ****Test one paid offer.** If you can get to that level of granularity, then you've reached a point where your next challenge will actually provide some feedback for you to use. #### The Right-Size Check If it feels: - slightly underwhelming, - slightly too simple, - slightly imperfect, it’s probably the right size. That's probably the opposite of what you're used to hearing because typically people like declaring "growth comes from discomfort!" but if that causes you to end up stuck, it's better to scale down your expectations a little and focus on what's in front of you instead. Big decisions create paralysis before action. Small, concrete ones create movement. ### 3\. Are the *boundaries* clear? A loop without a boundary can reopen forever. A decision towards a direction that has no finish can leave you wandering indefinitely. Even a small commitment can stretch endlessly if it has no edge. This is where most execution stalls. Not because the task is too big, but because it has no clear endpoint. Every loop needs to be contained in some way that makes this explicitly clear. To determine this, we run the Boundary Check. #### The Boundary Check There are three kinds of boundaries. Ideally, your decisions have all three. But you can start with only one present. The more boundaries you have in place, the easier it is to stay on track and not get stuck. The boundaries are: - a **time boundary** → "This gets two evenings." - an **output boundary** → "One published version." - a **condition boundary** → "Until I get 10 responses." If your commitment has none, it has the danger of stretching in the process. Boundaries are not pressure. They are filters. They prevent endless refinement towards a goal that was never set in the first place. So before you start, make sure to say it out loud clearly: "This ends when..." If you can’t finish that sentence, it isn’t bounded yet. ### 4\. Is it *mine*? This is not about structure but about responsibility. Ask: **If this doesn’t happen, who is *actually* responsible?** Many open loops stay open because we are carrying weight that was never fully ours. Before you invest more time or emotion, run it through a simple test. We call this the Agency Filter and you find yourself not in control of your own future, then there are only two Agency Outcomes that can give it back to you. #### The Agency Filter Before you commit more time or emotional energy, ask: **Can I, through my own action, move this forward?** Movement means you: - can take a concrete step without permission. - can produce something independently. - can close your part regardless of what others decide. If progress depends primarily on someone else’s timing, decision, or approval, then the outcome is not fully yours. And that distinction matters. Because as long as you treat a shared or external responsibility as your own, the loop will stay open, even if just emotionally (and that eats away your energy, too.) If the honest answer to that question is unclear, conditional, or dependent on others, you are likely holding something that isn’t fully within your control. Common things you might hear yourself saying: - "Well… it depends." - "We’re waiting on others." - "It’s a group decision." When that happens, there are only two clean outcomes. #### The Agency Outcomes Ownership must become clear before any type of movement can happen. Ownership is not given, it is earned and then taken. If you are not in control of the outcome and it causes you to be stuck, there are two things you can do. ##### Redefine Your Part If you control *a specific action* inside the larger situation, shrink the loop until you fully own *that* action. 🔍 To make that more concrete with some examples again: ~~Launch the collaboration~~ → ****Deliver my part of the collaboration by Friday.** ~~We decide on the direction~~ → ****I present my proposed direction.** You close *your* loop. Whether others close theirs is up to them, and entirely separate from you. Taking back your ownership restores your movement. ##### Release the Commitment If you truly do not control the action, then it may not be your loop to close. You cannot close someone else’s loop. You can only choose your level of participation. That leaves you with three options: - Define how long you’re willing to stay involved. - Redefine your involvement to something you control. - Step away entirely. Even waiting needs a boundary. Otherwise that becomes silent attachment too. To keep yourself from waiting indefinitely, you can for example say "I’ll wait two weeks. If nothing happens within that time, I withdraw." Remember, if you are not responsible for the outcome, you are only responsible for your involvement. ### 5\. What’s the *real* risk? Strip the drama away and ask yourself: - Is this irreversible? - Is this financially destructive? - Is this physically dangerous? If the answer is "no" to all three, you are not facing catastrophe. You are facing a manageable risk. In many creative decisions, that manageable risk is social discomfort. Not always, some risks are strategic, some are timing-related, but very few are catastrophic. That distinction matters, because hesitation often inflates manageable risk into imagined danger. Linger too long on a decision and it can start to feel threatening. You’re afraid of: - Being misunderstood. - Being judged. - Being seen as premature. - Being seen as wrong. That is *discomfort*, not danger. What feels like a threat is often just exposure. Uncomfortable, yes, but survivable. If the risk is survivable, the loop should close. The *real* risk is *not* choosing. The *real* risk is staying in hypothetical 'if, could, should, would' versions of reality, forever. ## Putting it together A decision doesn’t need to be perfect. It doesn’t need to be final. It needs: - An end - A contained scope - A boundary - An owner - A survivable risk If those are present, move. Not because you’re sure. But because then you have a good change of actually finishing something. And once you finish something, it can teach you something too. Something *real*. Direction doesn’t come from thinking harder. It comes from closing loops, as fast and as many as you can. If you can only see as little as one step ahead. That has always been enough. Just go.