Finishing a New Year's task

“Why finish a task today when you can let it haunt you tomorrow?”

For a glimpse into my personality, I have been suffering from the Zeignernik effect because I had left an unfinished task here in my Substack journal. I will complete it today!

Background

Lithuanian-Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik studied a phenomenon observed by her mentor that waiters in a café could remember the status of so many unpaid orders. Once the bills were settled, the waiters could then clear the orders from their minds. Intrigued by this observation, she conducted experiments showing that people are more likely to remember interrupted or unfinished tasks than completed ones. Her hypothesis, based on the work of her mentor Kurt Lewin (field theory), was that uncompleted tasks create a cognitive tension that keeps them active in our memory.

In software user interfaces, there are many design elements that leverage the Zeigarnik effect. For example, setup wizards utilize progress bars to reinforce the notion that there is still work to do. Notifications and reminders also serve to reinforce the notion that there is still work to do. Even gamification techniques like incomplete progress badges (level “14” of “40”) serve to reinforce that there’s more work to do!

Before software interfaces, those of us growing up with TV experienced the Zeigarnik effect with TV cliffhangers. In the modern era, streaming services utilize this phenomenon to get us to binge-watch TV shows by leaving unresolved plot lines between shows to compel us to watch the next one. (And they make it even easier by auto-playing subsequent episodes!) Our brains are wired to seek resolution and closure.

So what was left unfinished?

In my post, Three Big Questions, I did finish the recap of our dinner conversation with a friend. Three questions served to provide just the right amount of fodder to talk about in one evening. However, those who clicked through on the referenced article from Time of “10 Questions to Ask Yourself at the Start of a New Year” may have observed that we left 7 unanswered. This incomplete task has been bugging me.

The resolution? Complete the task. While the cognitive tension drives me to seek resolution and closure, it does not require that the task be completed with the highest quality! It just needs to be finished to relieve the cognitive tension. The theory goes that it will allow my mind to move on!

Here goes!

So, this is my “lightning round” of the next 7 questions.

4. What should I say no to? What would I like to say yes to?

I should say “No” to any investment opportunity with more than a 7-year “life.” I have written about how my mind and body are in a race against time, and the story I write for Marsha and the kids shouldn’t be one of navigating a tangled web of financial investments.

I should say “Yes” to any opportunities to spend more time with Marsha, the kids, and friends. I should jump on any suggestions for guy’s trips. I’ve previously written about navigating the friendship recession. I love that Scott Galloway mentioned in his podcast that his cures for male loneliness are regular text messaging and guy’s trips!

5. What positive qualities did I notice in myself in 2024?

I have a learning mindset. I have been learning to work on myself, even to the point of therapy burnout. It’s a process!

6. What am I most proud of and grateful for over the past year?

I have been grateful for all the messages and conversations with friends who have been supporting my journaling efforts here on Substack. My aim has been to articulate my thoughts into words to effect changes in my behavior (“thought-word-deed”). All of your encouragement has been really motivating for me to keep writing and taking this journey!

I am proud that even some friends have promoted my Substack to others on social media. (Thanks to Mark, Doug, and Jereme, to name a few!)

7. How can I make peace with last year's problems?

I am just working to improve. Making peace for me is about accepting personal responsibility for what I can control and to allow others to hold what is theirs to hold.

8. Are my goals specific and attainable?

Getting specific and attainable goals are why I stated my New Year’s resolutions as SMART goals. (“SMART” stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.)

9. Am I being kind to myself?

I am learning to practice self-empathy. Being kind to myself is a necessary prerequisite to being more empathetic to others, too.

10. What would I do in 2025 if I weren't afraid?

I am looking to take my writing to the next level! Recall my New Year’s SMART goal #4 about what to do with this Substack. A conversation with my older daughter and one of her friends introduced me to the concept of arXiv, a site where researchers make their work publicly accessible to get early feedback prior to (or instead of) submitting their work to publications.

The clarity I am getting here is that this Substack is my personal journal and a playground for what I might submit to other publications! I am currently looking at a number of Medium publications that I might want to submit articles to, both to force me to pitch my work as well as to conform to editorial guidelines. The aim is to make me a better writer! Marsha has also found a cool column in HuffPost that could be a potential spot for a story about my retirement journey. Please let me know if you have other suggestions for how I might take my writing to the next level!

Finishing up!

While I’m retired and am focusing on reflections, I know that it is a luxury to have the time and energy to complete this (albeit minor) task.

For those who don’t have the time and energy, I wrote about two (somewhat conflicting) strategies for bypassing the Zeigarnik effect in “Time Management didn’t work”. As a reminder, the two are:

• Ditch the long “to-do” list. The concept is that having too many things on a “to-do” list just clutters the mind with all the unfinished tasks. Eat that Frog suggests only focusing on one task to complete for the next day.

• Giving yourself the permission to forget. David Allen’s Getting Things Done takes the opposite approach of just writing everything down, with the theory that categorizing everything into specific contexts frees the mind and allows people to just work from the list! There’s a cool app called OmniFocus to support this practice, but it takes a lot of effort.

Again, I found that neither of those approaches to time and energy management worked for me during my career. (Perhaps they might work for you?)

As such, I resorted to using the freedom of retirement to do the obvious thing per Zeigarnik and just complete the task! Thanks for entertaining this. Now, I can clear my brain to move on to other reflections!