HOW UNDONE THINGS STRESS US:
THE ZEIGARNIK EFFECT BY DIRK STRODA
Get Your Shit Done ... Why It Is Still A Great Advice
Let me talk about a phenomenon that all of us experienced at some point in our lives - some do experience it every day.
Undone things stress us and they rob our night sleeps.
Coaching sessions with my clients are deep learning experiences and they touch on all facets of life. Symptoms have a root cause ... finding the cause takes time and deep conversations.
One of my clients, she is a CEO of an international operating company, was stressed and majorly impacted by her insomnia ... waking up at 4:15 am and her mind was going full tilt ... and when the alarm went on at 6:45 am she was at low energy, tired and started her day with an 'I-don't-want-to-get-up' attitude.
Here is how you can prevent stressing our on things and insomnia. And it has a name:
It's called the Zeigarnik Effect.
Bluma Zeigarnik (1900-1988) was a Russian Psychologist. She observed that uncompleted tasks had the potential to stay in peoples mind much longer than finished tasks.
Uncompleted things wake you up. They have the potential becoming huge stressors.
Zeigarnik was watching waiters in a restaurant. The waiters seemed to remember complex orders that allowed them to deliver the right combination of food to the tables, yet the information vanished as the food was delivered. Zeigarnik observed that the uncompleted orders seemed to stick in the waiters’ minds until they were actually completed.
Conclusion: Uncompleted tasks will stay on your mind until you finish them! Get things done - so you can sleep well.
Assignment for the week
Make a list and when I say 'make', it means write it down.
So, make a list of the tasks (macro) that you want to complete this week (over the next 7 days) such as adding new content to your website, finishing the repairs at the house, deciding on the new collection for the next season, reaching out to your retailers, composing a new song, practicing my part in the movie scene, etc.
Now have a second page where you list all of your goal completion steps (micro). You will find that this method of tracking your success is very encouraging and you are eager to complete more micro steps toward your macro task.
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