Closing Loose Ends: How to Start the New Year With a Clean Slate

🎯 This is Part 2/9 of the Series Your Best Year Yet

You’re reading part one of Your Best Year Yet: A Step-by-Step Guide — a special year-end series designed to help you reflect on the past year, set transformative goals, and create a plan to thrive in the year ahead.

In the upcoming issue, you will learn to build a vision to guide your actions for the new year’s challenges. Subscribe not to miss it!

Have you ever felt like you’re dragging a bag of unfinished tasks, unresolved relationships, or mental clutter into the new year?

Trust me — you’re in good company.

Studies show that 82% of people leave at least one major project or goal unfinished each year. But those loose ends don’t vanish when the calendar flips to January. Instead, they lurk like that weird smell in your fridge, quietly draining your energy, focus, and appetite.

Last week, you analyzed your past year to understand your wins and challenges. This week, here’s another personal tradition for you — the End-of-Year Closeout .

The concept is simple: you have to tie up the loose ends at the end of the year. Find a solution for any unfinished tasks, unresolved conflicts, or even that chaotic drawer you’ve been pretending doesn’t exist, and create mental space.

Lighten the load and set yourself up for the new year with clarity, confidence, and purpose.

Don’t carry the unfinished business into every January. It’s time to take action. And don’t worry — it’s not about perfection or crossing off every item on your to-do list. It’s about prioritizing what matters and letting go of what doesn’t.

Let’s talk about the impact of unfinished business.

Loose ends have a measurable effect on your mental health and productivity beyond the nagging feeling that you’ve forgotten something.

Unfinished tasks are one of the top five causes of workplace anxiety , according to the American Institute of Stress (2022). And the mental burden of carrying unresolved items — even small ones — adds to overall stress levels.

Incomplete tasks lodge in your memory more persistently than complete ones. Psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik identified a phenomenon that creates mental open tabs that drain cognitive energy.

Princeton Neuroscience Institute found that physical clutter can compete for your attention and reduce your ability to focus. When your environment is chaotic, your mind struggles to stay clear.

Lingering obligations can distract you from pursuing new opportunities. And this may be the most important effect of loose ends. In 2019, a study found that 76% of people felt they couldn’t focus on new goals because they were preoccupied with old ones .

So closing ends isn’t only an exercise to feel good. It’s a practical, evidence-based strategy for reducing stress and maximizing your potential.

Let’s see how you can do it fast.

Before closing your loose ends, you need to know what they are.

Think of it as your mental audit . Set aside 30 minutes in a quiet space (the same as the previous issue). Grab a pen and paper (or the infographic below), and start listing.

To help you job your memory, think in categories.

• Tasks: Projects you started but never finished. Bills you meant to pay.
• Relationships: Conversations you avoided. Apologies you need to make. Messages you promised to send but didn’t.
• Physical Spaces: A cluttered closet. A chaotic junk drawer.
• Habits or Promises to Yourself: Goals you set but didn’t follow through on.

Don’t censor yourself. This exercise is not meant to judge what you should or shouldn’t do. It’s about discovering what is in your mind. You might not even be aware of some of the recursive thoughts that will come up.

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Now that you have a list (the most important thing for us personal growth geeks) , it’s time to get ruthless.

Not every loose end needs to be tied up. And holding onto unnecessary commitments is one of the biggest barriers to starting fresh.

Ask yourself three questions for each item:

1. Does this truly matter to me, or am I holding onto it out of guilt or obligation?
2. Will completing this add value to my life, or is it just busy work?
3. Is this task aligned with my goals for the future?

I had a half-finished fantasy book project on my Google Drive and told myself I’d finish it someday. But I’d lost interest in it entirely, and keeping it around only made me feel guilty when I opened its folder.

Letting it go was liberating. And I don’t mean deleting it. Putting it in a safe place where you don’t always see it is enough.

Sometimes, letting go feels hard. So you can reframe those decisions to prioritize what matters most. It doesn’t have to mean you are quitting forever. You are choosing to leave for now.

People try to finish everything at once, but it always leads to overwhelm and procrastination. So, create a plan to tackle each task and commitment you decide to keep.

A one-at-a-time approach works best.

1. Start Small : Begin with the easiest task on your list. Research shows that completing small tasks first creates momentum (I’ve talked about that here.)
2. Set Deadlines : Set a realistic deadline for each task. Be specific. Don’t write things like I’ll do it next week.
3. Use the 2-Minute Rule : If a task can be done in two minutes or less, do it immediately.

Last year, one of my lingering tasks was organizing my email. I mixed my private and work life at the same address. I didn’t set up any rules to split my tax notifications, job offers, and readers wanting to interact. And many times, I lost a few important opportunities because of that.

It took me 30 minutes to fix everything. I split my emails into five different folders. I have one for taxes and subscriptions, one for work, one for personal growth feeds, emails from my subscribers, and general topics. And until then, I’ve never missed an email ever again.

Conversations are some of the heaviest loose ends.

Unresolved conflicts or unspoken words can weigh on you far more than a messy desk. And the end of the year is the perfect moment to release that pressure.

Consider whether it’s time to address lingering tensions with someone. This doesn’t mean jumping into a confrontation. Sometimes, you can search for closure from within — writing a letter you never send or acknowledging your feelings and letting them go.

Other times, you will have to take action.

Last year, I realized I hadn’t spoken with a friend for months. Reaching out felt scary because I didn’t know if I did anything to make them angry at me. But when I did, it lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. And it turns out he thought the same things about me.

It was the perfect moment to reconnect. We have solved our conflicts, and now we often hang out. But our paths may have split forever if I hadn't reached out.

Don’t forget to celebrate your progress.

Every loose end you close is a victory. Here’s an idea to help you achieve more: the completion jar.

Write each of the loose ends you have to complete on different pieces of paper. Each of them will have a task and a deadline. Whenever you finish a task, throw it into a jar. And at the end, read through your notes and reflect on how far you’ve come.

• (SAFE VERSION) Write a reward on the jar and collect it only once you finish all the tasks.
• (UNSAFE VERSION) Once you’re done reading, set the jar on fire. I did it last year, and it felt liberating.

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• Want more? Explore my other work at Cosmopolitan Mindset.