Loop in Three

Several problems keep appearing together, and you suspect they feed each other. Sketch three changing quantities and test whether a consequence really returns to affect the next turn.

Three variables. Verb arrows. A real return—or a chain.

Choose three quantities that change, connect them with concrete causal verbs, and try to trace the third back to the first. Name what carries history forward. The sketch is a hypothesis: a missing return path stays open, and plausible arrows still need evidence.

Try this when…

These problems seem to keep each other going.

I can draw a circle, but is it real?

The same events happen in the same order.

What from yesterday makes today different?

What you can use it for

Recurring work problems

Locate a possible return from backlog or rework into the next work cycle.

Practice patterns

Ask how stored skill, errors, or feedback change the next attempt.

Shared routines

Separate self-reinforcing arrangements from repeated external interruptions.