Why Some Things Are Best Left Undone
Rachel Oliver
Founder, Curism
The Zeigarnik Effect teaches us the value of deliberately putting things off.
It feels extremely satisfying coming to the end of a task, completing something, getting stuff done, particularly if it has taken a lot of work.
The joy of facing the next day with a clean slate.
While this might sound like something worth aiming for (and in certain cases it can be), it can also, paradoxically, be hazardous for our productivity levels.
In fact, being too proficient at getting stuff done can be the very thing that can stop us from being able to get started the next day.
The Perils Of A Blank Slate
Any of us who have ever suffered from creative block knows how excruciating it is to stare endlessly at a blank page (figuratively or otherwise), praying for inspiration to come flooding in.
We all know that the magic never comes that way.
That’s why some of the best advice out there for creatives who find themselves in this position is just to write/create something — anything — even if it’s complete drivel.
It gets the wheels turning and gives us something to work with (see Mark Manson’s “Do Something Principle” as an example of this, or Tim Ferriss’ “Two Crappy Pages”).
But there’s another, arguably easier, way. It requires walking away from a creative task before it is done and, specifically, to resist the urge to complete it before we hit the hay.
That incomplete task will linger in our minds and compel us to go back to it.
Our brains can’t help it. We need closure.
This phenomenon is called The Zeigarnik Effect.
The Zeigarnik Effect
Named after psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, the concept was inspired by a colleague’s observation that waiters in a restaurant had an uncanny ability to remember details about orders only up until the point that the food had been served.
Once service was complete, so was any memory they had of the details of it.
It led Zeigarnik to later conclude that we had a significantly higher likelihood to recall unfinished tasks (and forget completed ones), as author and psychologist Adam Grant, notes in his book, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World:
“Once a task is finished, we stop thinking about it. But when it is interrupted and left undone, it stays active in our minds.”
Open Loops
These things left undone, which play on our minds, are called “open loops”. These “loops” or incomplete tasks, create an internal tension in our minds, where we can’t stop thinking about them, as video essayist, Will Schoder explains in this video:
“Your subconscious nags your conscious mind over and over again… It makes sense; you remember an incomplete task because your brain thinks it’s important and completing that task enables you to forget about it.”
But that’s not all it does. It also increases our motivation to do the tasks.
“[Zeigarnik ] discovered a strong relationship between that memory of an incomplete task and a desire for cognitive closure. That is, if there is an objective that we committed ourselves to pursue — an open loop — we’re highly motivated to close that loop in order to escape the intrusive thoughts and feelings it causes.”
So having a task left undone is, by default, a kind of way round creative block and procrastination.
The take-away being: always make sure we have something to do and we won’t ever have to face the dreaded blank slate.
Strategic Procrastination
There is another term for this, according to Grant. He calls it “strategic procrastination”.
Strategic procrastination is the deliberate act of putting something off to ensure it stays in our minds and that we pick it up again. It also means giving ourselves the time and space we need to potentially come up with better ideas. And it has been applied by the likes of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King throughout history, according to Grant.
So the next you want something to get up for and you are hellbent on increasing your chances of getting in “the zone”, then put it down — whatever it is you’re working on.
It will still be there tomorrow and you’ll be thankful it is.