The Loop and The List
28 Days of Asking: Day 5
The afternoon crept up on me today.
Not too bad a way. The way you look up, and three hours have passed, and you’re not sure where they went.
Ordinary by Alex Warren is playing. Pink post-it checklist written before bed last night, guiding the morning. One thing flows into the next.
Today’s sail winds were boosted by an early call, discovering functionality at work in a blind spot. Something clicked into place. And suddenly I could see how much faster everything is about to move.
I’m on fire today. That’s not always the case.
Day 5: Where does my mind go when it wanders?
When things are flowing like this, my mind doesn’t wander much. It stays locked into the work. Creation mode.
And I know where it goes when it drifts. It goes to worry. To replaying. To loops.
The same conversation running again. The same uncertainty circling. The same question I can’t quite answer but can’t quite drop.
In 2010, Harvard psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert published a study in Science that tracked 2,250 people through an iPhone app, pinging them at random moments to ask: What are you doing? What are you thinking about? How happy are you?
What they found was striking.
People’s minds wandered 47% of the time, almost half their waking hours spent thinking about something other than what they were doing.
And here’s the kicker: mind-wandering was a better predictor of unhappiness than the activity itself. It didn’t matter much what people were doing. What mattered was whether their mind was there. 🤯
“A human mind is a wandering mind,” they wrote, “and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind.”
The brain has a name for where it goes when it drifts. Neuroscientists call it the default mode network—a set of regions that light up when we’re not focused on anything external. It’s active during daydreaming, self-reflection, replaying the past, and imagining the future.
It’s not bad. It’s how we construct a sense of self. How we make meaning from memory.
But when it runs unchecked, when the wandering becomes rumination, it can pull us into loops that feel productive but aren’t.
I’ve noticed the difference.
When I can see the end goal clearly. When I know where I’m headed, and the path makes sense, my mind stays with me.
When the goal is foggy or the next step is unclear, that’s when the wandering starts. And the wandering isn’t exploration. It’s the loop.
There’s something about writing things down.
Last night I made a list. Nothing elaborate. Just what needed to happen today.
And this morning, instead of wondering where to start, I started.
The list didn’t make me productive. It gave my mind somewhere to go before it could wander somewhere else.
Here’s what I’m sitting with today:
Where does my mind go when it wanders? Not when I’m focused, but when I’m not directing it. When I’m in the shower, or driving, or waiting.
Does it plan? Replay? Worry? Wander toward something helpful or something circular?
If you’re following along, what do you notice today?
When your mind drifts, where does it land?
Not good or bad. Just notice.
That’s the practice this week. Paying attention to what’s already happening.
P.S. Flipping the title and subtitle structure going forward…It's better for my brain😉
Love the distinction between wandering as exploration vs wandering as the loop. That Killingsworth study really nails something most people feel but can't name, presence matters more than the activity itself. I find my mind drifts into planning mode alot when there's uncertainty ahead, and making a simple list like you mentioned shifts that loop energy into forward motion.The default mode network stuff is facinating.