Why your long list of unfinished work tasks takes up so much time

RTÉ News​

27-05-2025

Analysis: Modern work environments mean an ever-growing list of unfinished tasks so what can we do to fix this and reduce stress?
You might be familiar with that niggling sense that you have not finished something. It might an email you intended to send before lunch, the meeting notes you promised to circulate, or the project that is edging towards completion. These unfinished tasks often nudge us while we are in the shower, on our commute or lie in bed at night, using valuable cognitive resources that could be spent elsewhere.
From RTÉ Radio 1's Brendan O'Connor Show, Senior Lecturer in Psychology Dr Trudy Meehan on why you should get rid of the to-do list
The Zeigarnik Effect has been described as the tendency to remember and fixate on incomplete tasks more than completed ones. In the 1920s, a psychologist called Prof Bluma Zeigarnik observed that waiting staff remembered orders in restaurants much better when the order was unfulfilled. Once the orders were fulfilled, staff no longer remembered the details.
She designed a series of experiments to test the phenomenon. Zeigarnik gave participants a series of simple tasks, such as drawing, folding and arithmetic. Some were allowed to finish the tasks and others were interrupted mid-way. Later, she asked participants to recall what they had done. Those who had been interrupted were significantly more likely to remember the details of the unfinished tasks, perhaps due to a cognitive tension that arises when we leave something undone.
While the Zeigarnik Effect is intuitively compelling, research findings have been mixed over time. At best, some of us experience the Zeigarnik effect. People with a high need for achievement tend to remember unfinished tasks better, while those low in achievement need show the opposite pattern. People high in need for closure are more comfortable with ambiguity and therefore, unresolved tasks may create more stress for them.
From RTÉ Radio 1's Today with Claire Byrne, workplace psychologist Patricia Murray on why you should say 'no' more at work
Modern work environments offer ripe conditions for a long list of unfinished tasks to grow. Digital distractions are hard to ignore. While information is abundant, it is increasingly difficult to filter, verify, or make sense of it. Work can become fragmented as we rapidly switch between tasks. For many of us, the digital distractions, information overload and task fragmentation can stifle progress on more meaningful work tasks requiring sustained energy and attention.
As human beings, our ability to pay attention is limited and selective. There is limited (if any) compelling evidence to suggest that we can successfully divide our attention across tasks. Paying attention to reminders (whether our own mental interruptions or digital banners) of unfinished tasks can draw attentional resources that could be used elsewhere.
Our working memory system is also limited in capacity and there is a limit with how much information we can keep 'live' in our working memory. Thinking about the content of unfinished tasks could be using up prime mental resources and causing stress.
From RTÉ Radio 1's Today with Claire Byrne, Do you put off simple tasks? You might have errand paralysis
However, we can also consider how both workers and leaders can work with, rather than against, these aspects of human psychology. For many of us, it feels great to complete tasks that have been lingering. Practical solutions to achieve this may include breaking larger tasks into smaller incomplete steps and creating "open loops" on the truly important tasks to drive persistence.
A daily shutdown ritual, like reviewing your to-do list and mentally 'closing the office', could reduce stress. When reviewing your unfinished task list, you should ask what can I complete quickly, delegate to others or simply delete? Leaders can use progress tracking and check-ins to relieve task-related tension and balance the drive for urgency with psychosocial risks such as reduced wellbeing or occupational burnout (of which emotional exhaustion and perceived inefficacy at work are key aspects).
We should reflect on our own experience of unfinished tasks at work, and to consider adopting strategies to work with it - not against it
The Zeigarnik effect began with a simple observation of everyday behaviour at work. While many factors influence our cognition, there is an opportunity for us all to reflect on our own experience of unfinished tasks at work, and to consider adopting strategies to work with it, not against it.
Zeigarnik herself remained resolute in her pursuit of education, love, and the creation of new knowledge despite the great challenges, interruptions, and losses faced in her own life. As Oliver Burkeman reminds us in Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, our time is finite both in work and in life; so how will you intentionally choose your "unfinished tasks" in both work and personal life domains?