How to Improve Productivity with the Zeigarnik Effect

From this article you will learn what the psychological effect of Zeigarnik is, and why it works. You will figure out how to use it for better memorization, including for preparing for exams, and also how to defeat procrastination with it. When this effect does not work and how to neutralize its negative impact - we will also consider in the article.

In order to learn the mechanisms of memorization, effective techniques and techniques, come to our online program "Mnemonics".

What is the Zeigarnik effect
When you start working on a business, but don’t finish it, thoughts of work in progress continue to pop up in your mind, even when you move on to other things. Such thoughts prompt you to return and finish what you have already begun.

When you interrupt viewing a series or reading a book, you will remember this moment most of all. This is another manifestation of the effect that affects your memory.
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This psychological effect is actively used by directors, screenwriters, advertisers to keep attention. The trailers for the film are built on this principle: they consist of many unfinished pieces. Your brain will want to “finish” the job, and put together the whole picture. But then you have to buy a ticket and go to the cinema. So you are trapped in the Zeigarnik effect.

How does he work
Studying the manifestations of the effect, scientists introduced the concept of cognitive tension. As soon as you begin to carry out some task, a certain tension is created in the brain. You can get rid of it only if you complete the task and get your dose of dopamine as a reward.

If you have not finished the job, the brain will constantly remind you of it. Cognitive stress contributes to the return of an unfinished task to short-term memory. It will remind you of it until you finish it to the end.

How to apply it in your life?
Improving the education process
If you are preparing for the exam, break the process into blocks and prepare in advance. Break each block not at a logical point (i.e., do not finish the topic to the end), but in the middle of the training material. Your brain will remember this much better. If you prepare in one night, you will have to shove all the knowledge in one go.

A similar approach can be applied in other cases when you study any large amount of data. Divide it into parts and take small breaks between them. The brain will continue to process information at these intervals, and you will remember it much better. Just a minute gap is enough to get the desired result.

Defeating Procrastination
Often we postpone tasks until the last moment, performing them in a furious impulse at the very last moment, in order to meet the deadline. This trend leads to significant stress and decreases productivity.

The Zeigarnik effect will help to cope with this. Start with the first step, no matter how small it is or how little it affects the result. For example, open the project file you are working with. This will result in such an unfinished action in relation to the entire task. In accordance with the Zeigarnik effect, the brain will continue to think about business. And it will be much easier for you to take the next step. And so on until you finish the whole project. Of course, perhaps you will not do it in one sitting, but in any case, you can overcome your procrastination.

Reverse side of the Zeigarnik effect
Unfortunately, this technique does not work in all cases. If you expect a reward for a specific piece of work, deliberately interrupting a task to pieces only worsens productivity and motivation to continue.

This feature was confirmed by a study [Kenneth O. McGraw, 1982], conducted at the University of Mississippi. Participants were divided into 2 groups and given a task that should be performed using the Zeigarnik effect. One of the groups was promised to pay for participation in the experiment.

As a result, those who were promised a reward returned to work after a break in only 56% of cases. The percentage of returns of the second group was higher - 86%.

So if you work daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on an hourly basis, this method most likely will not work.

There is another problem that limits the use of this effect. If the number of unfinished tasks is too large, your brain will be overloaded. In addition to working on the current assignment, he will have to spend a resource on many other unfinished business. You will begin to experience stress, your attention span will decrease, and your productivity will decrease.

There are two ways to deal with this:

Limit the application of the Zeigarnik effect to 1-3 projects so as not to tire your brain too much. Remember that it is most effective in the field of education.
Delegate some unfinished business. The brain will perceive tasks such as completed, and free up some “RAM” for current affairs.
What to remember
The Zeigarnik effect is the brain’s desire to complete unfinished tasks.