Have you ever noticed how unfinished tasks seem to take up a permanent residence in your head, popping up at the most inconvenient times? It’s like your brain refuses to let go until you’ve ticked that task off your todo list. Welcome to the world of the Zeigarnik Effect, a mental phenomenon that, once mastered, can revolutionize your productivity and creativity. But how exactly does it work, and what can you do to harness its power?

The Zeigarnik Effect taps into a fundamental aspect of human psychology: our innate desire for completion. Psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik first observed this phenomenon in the 1920s when she noted that waiters could remember the details of unpaid orders better than those of orders that had been completed and paid for. This observation led to the hypothesis that incomplete tasks create a kind of psychological tension that improves cognitive recall.

So what’s the neurochemistry happening in our brains that makes unfinished tasks so sticky? When you initiate a task, your prefrontal cortex, the area responsible for executive function and decision-making, keeps the task in an active state in short-term memory. Failing to complete a task requires you to actively retrieve/rehearse the memory to keep the task at the forefront of your awareness. This is also, ironically, why reviewing information a few times and then taking a break, where your brain returns to dwell on it, helps you remember a topic better.

When you finally do achieve a goal or complete a task, your body releases the chemical neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin. Dopamine is considered a ‘reward’ chemical that creates feelings of motivation, satisfaction and productivity. Serotonin, on the other hand, helps to create those feelings of happiness, calm and focus. If you’re piling on more tasks without those twin boosts of dopamine and serotonin, you start to feel mental clutter, stress, and, potentially, anxiety. This understanding can be a powerful tool in determining what strategies we employ and how we prioritize things to ensure we’re completing tasks and freeing up our bandwidth.

One approach is to break down larger tasks into smaller, more manageable parts. This not only makes the task seem less daunting but also provides multiple opportunities for the sense of achievement that comes with completing a task. Each small completion helps to clear a little more mental clutter, making room for new thoughts and ideas. Another strategy is to set specific deadlines. The pressure of a deadline can help to focus your mind, pushing you to complete the task so it can be mentally filed away.

But what about when deadlines are out of your control, or the task is so vast it seems insurmountable? This is where the power of delegation or seeking help comes into play. Sometimes, freeing up your mental bandwidth means recognizing when you’re not the best person for a task, or when sharing the load could bring about a better outcome. Efficiency is often about doing fewer things in a smarter way.

Considering what you now know about the Zeigarnik Effect, what’s one thing you can complete today to start clearing more mental workspace?