You know how having too many open Chrome tabs bogs your computer down?

The same happens to your brain.

Unfinished tasks keep “running” in the background, which impairs performance.

It’s called the Zeigarnik Effect.

Here’s how it works and what to do about it:

The Zeigarnik Effect is named after Dr. Bluma Zeigarnik. She was inspired to study this memory phenomenon when her professor, psychologist Kurt Lewin, noticed that restaurant servers had better memory recall for unpaid orders. However, once customers paid, the servers struggled to remember the details of the orders.

But why?

Zeigarnik found that our brains are wired to remember unfinished tasks better than completed ones. Like a to-do list, once we finish a task, our brain checks it off to free up mental bandwidth.

But this also means that, the more unfinished tasks we have running in the background, the more resources our brains dedicate to keeping track of them.

The Zeigarnik Effect is why storytellers use cliffhangers. We keep reading or watching to find out what happens next because........

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