Unfinished tasks that will not leave us alone, and why a short plan calms them

The waiters of Berlin and Bluma Zeigarnik (1927), what new evidence says about the "Zeigarnik effect" and the experiments of E. J. Masicampo and Roy Baumeister (2011) on making plans

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Translated from the Albanian original by the editors. Shqip

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Illustration: a lamp over a list, a symbol of the clarity that comes from writing tasks down
Original illustration by the lexoshpejt editors. Not a historical photograph or object.
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It is said that in the 1920s the psychologist Kurt Lewin and his students noticed something in a Berlin café: a waiter remembered in detail the orders that had not yet been paid, but quickly forgot them once the customers had paid. One of his students, Bluma Zeigarnik, tested this idea in the laboratory.

The 1927 experiment

Zeigarnik gave participants a series of short tasks: puzzles, drawings, counting. Some tasks they were allowed to finish, others were interrupted before the end. Afterwards they had to recall the tasks. According to her results, they remembered the interrupted tasks better than the completed ones. This became known as the Zeigarnik effect. Another of Lewin's students, Maria Ovsiankina, noticed that people tend to return to interrupted tasks to finish them.

What the new evidence says

The Zeigarnik effect is often mentioned, but when researchers have combined many experiments, the memory advantage for unfinished tasks has not proved consistent. There is stronger evidence for the tendency to return to them. In other words: it is not certain that we remember them better, but it seems our mind does not leave them in peace.

The power of a plan

In 2011 the psychologists E. J. Masicampo and Roy Baumeister ran several experiments with a practical question. Participants were reminded of an important goal they had not completed, such as an approaching exam. This made thoughts about the goal intrude on other tasks, such as reading. But when participants made a clear plan for when, where and how they would carry it out, the intrusion fell markedly, even though the goal was still unfinished.

The mind does not always need the task to be finished. Often it only needs to know that we have a plan.

How to apply it

  1. Unload your mind on to paper. When you feel overloaded, write down every open task that comes to mind.
  2. For each, write the next concrete step: not "the report" but "open the file and write the three main points".
  3. Set the time: "Wednesday at 10." A plan without a time is just a wish.
  4. Close the day with a list for tomorrow. It helps you detach from work in the evening.
  5. When you interrupt a piece of work, note where you stopped and the next step. Coming back will be easier.

Sources and further reading

  1. Zeigarnik, B. (1927). Das Behalten erledigter und unerledigter Handlungen. Psychologische Forschung, 9, 1–85. WorldCat
  2. Masicampo, E. J. & Baumeister, R. F. (2011). Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(4), 667–683. PubMed
  3. Ghibellini, R. & Meier, B. (2023). The hypothesis of the Zeigarnik and Ovsiankina effects: A meta-analysis. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. WorldCat

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