The Zeigarnik effect describes the fact that people tend to remember unfinished tasks better than completed ones. It happens because “unfinished tasks create a cognitive burden, weigh more heavily on the mind, and are more easily recalled than completed tasks.”
The effect was first described in the 1920s by Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik after observing that waiters remembered the details of restaurant orders which had not yet been paid but forgot them soon after customers paid their bills. (Note: Some sources credit the idea to Zeigarnik’s professor, Kurt Lewin.) Zeigarnik designed a series of experiments which assigned tasks to participants, some of which were interrupted during the tasks and others were allowed to complete them undisturbed. After an hour, the participants who had been interrupted had significantly better recall of the details of their tasks.
You can use the Zeigarnik effect to help memorize a series of facts, a speech, or other items in which repetition is useful. Every 30 minutes or so, take 15-minute breaks to spend time on something else and then return to the item you’re trying to learn. You can even break up the learning session over multiple days; this is the spacing effect.
The Zeigarnik effect might also help with procrastination. Organizational psychologist Maria-Teresa Daher-Cusack suggests you only have to commit to working on something for five minutes. “Most of the time, you’ll keep going because your brain won’t want to leave it unfinished. Especially if you get into a ‘flow state,’ where you get deeply immersed into a task.”
If the task is too large and feels overwhelming, the key is to break it down into smaller parts which seemingly could be tackled with a commitment of only five minutes. It doesn’t matter if you start with a non-critical portion of the task; getting started and leaving it unfinished will trigger the Zeigarnik effect and increase the probability you come back to work on it later. Personally, I find that writing down the unfinished portions of the task makes it more effective.
The Zeigarnik effect suggests multitasking isn’t very efficient. Each unfinished task lingers in our memories, creating additional cognitive burden to finishing the current one. We are much more likely to be successful – and efficient – if we tackle the tasks one at a time.
For what it’s worth, I hope you stopped reading this article in the middle and returned to it later on. The Zeigarnik effect suggests you’re much more likely to remember it.
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