It’s 2 AM. I should be sleeping.
Instead, I’m lying in bed thinking about that bug I almost fixed. I know exactly where the problem is. I know how to solve it. I just ran out of time.
My brain won’t let it go.
Or that blog post I started writing three days ago. I have the outline. I wrote the intro. But I haven’t finished it, and it’s nagging at me every time I sit down to work.
Or those 47 open browser tabs. Each one a task I started but didn’t complete. Each one creating a tiny background process in my mind.
This is the Zeigarnik Effect: unfinished tasks occupy mental space and create psychological tension until they’re completed.
And once you understand it, you can use it to your advantage—or at least stop letting it sabotage your peace of mind.
What is the Zeigarnik Effect?
The Zeigarnik Effect is named after Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, who discovered it in the 1920s.
The observation:
Zeigarnik noticed that waiters could remember complex, unfilled orders with perfect accuracy, but forgot orders immediately after delivering them.
The hypothesis:
Unfinished tasks create a kind of psychological tension that keeps them active in memory. Completed tasks release that tension and are forgotten.
The experiment:
Zeigarnik set up experiments where participants worked on various puzzles and tasks. Half were allowed to finish. Half were interrupted.
Results:
Participants remembered interrupted tasks about twice as well as completed ones.
The mechanism:
When you start a task, your brain creates a kind of cognitive “bookmark.” It keeps that task active in your working memory to ensure you come back to it.
Once you finish, the bookmark is removed, the tension is released, and you forget about it.
The problem: Your brain treats all unfinished tasks equally. The critical production bug and the “organize downloads folder” task both create tension.
The Psychological Mechanics
Why does this happen?
1. Goal-Related Activation
Once you commit to a goal, your brain activates related concepts and keeps them accessible.
Example:
You decide to “refactor the auth system.”
Now, any time you see auth-related code, you think: “I should refactor this.”
Even when you’re working on something else, the unfinished refactor lurks in the background.
2. Unresolved Tension
Incomplete tasks create a tension state—like an open loop your brain wants to close.
The feeling:
“I should be working on that.” “I can’t relax until I finish this.” “I know I’m forgetting something.”
This isn’t just psychological. Studies show unfinished tasks actually impair cognitive performance on other tasks.
3. Mental Bookmarking
Your brain uses mental resources to remember unfinished tasks.
The cost:
Each open task consumes a tiny amount of cognitive bandwidth. One task? Negligible. Twenty tasks? Your brain feels sluggish, and you don’t know why.
4. The Progress Principle
We’re motivated by making progress. Starting a task without finishing it violates this principle.
The unfinished task becomes a visible reminder of non-progress, creating mild anxiety.
The Zeigarnik Effect in Software Development
Let me show you how this plays out for developers:
Example 1: The Open Pull Request
The scenario:
You’re working on a feature. You create a PR. You’re waiting for code review.
Zeigarnik in action:
The PR is unfinished. Your brain can’t let it go.
Symptoms:
- You check GitHub every 20 minutes
- You refresh the PR page obsessively
- You can’t fully focus on new work
- You think about it during lunch, during meetings, before bed
Why?
Your brain has an open loop: “PR submitted, but not merged.” The tension won’t release until it’s resolved.
Example 2: The Half-Fixed Bug
The scenario:
It’s 5 PM. You’ve been debugging a race condition for three hours. You finally found the issue. You know exactly how to fix it. But you need to leave.
That night:
You can’t stop thinking about it. You’re mentally writing the fix. You’re testing edge cases in your head. You’re composing the commit message.
Why?
You started the task (debugging) and got far enough to see the solution. Your brain has the “I know how to solve this” tension but no release (actually solving it).
Result: You either stay late to finish it, or you have a terrible night’s sleep.
Example 3: The 15 Unfinished Side Projects
The scenario:
You have:
- A half-built SaaS tool
- An abandoned blog redesign
- Three tutorial apps you started but didn’t finish
- A CLI tool with 80% of features done
- Two GitHub repos with “coming soon” READMEs
Zeigarnik in action:
Every single one creates background tension.
The cost:
You can’t start anything new without thinking about the fifteen unfinished things.
You feel guilty. You feel scattered. You can’t focus.
Why?
Each project is an open loop. Your brain is tracking all of them, waiting for closure that never comes.
Example 4: The Open Browser Tabs
The scenario:
You have 47 browser tabs open:
- Documentation you meant to read
- Tutorials you started
- Stack Overflow answers you might need
- Articles you bookmarked to read later
Zeigarnik in action:
Each tab represents an unfinished micro-task.
The symptoms:
- You feel overwhelmed when you see your browser
- You’re afraid to close tabs (“what if I need this?”)
- You can’t find the tab you’re actually looking for
- Opening your browser creates low-level anxiety
Why?
Your brain sees 47 unfinished tasks. The cognitive load is real.
Example 5: The Meeting Without Action Items
The scenario:
You have a one-hour meeting. You discuss problems, ideas, possibilities.
But the meeting ends without clear action items or decisions.
Zeigarnik in action:
For the rest of the day, you can’t stop thinking about the meeting.
“What was decided?” “What am I supposed to do?” “Did we solve anything?”
Why?
The meeting started a conversation (opened a loop) but didn’t close it (no clear resolution).
Your brain is stuck in limbo.
The Hidden Costs
The Zeigarnik Effect isn’t just annoying. It has real costs:
Cost 1: Reduced Focus
The research:
Studies show that unfinished tasks occupy working memory and reduce performance on other cognitive tasks.
In practice:
You’re trying to write code, but you keep thinking about:
- That PR waiting for review
- That deployment you started
- That email you need to send
- That refactor you began
Result: Your actual task gets degraded focus.
Cost 2: Decision Fatigue
Every unfinished task is a decision waiting to happen.
“Should I work on this? Or that? Or the other thing?”
With 20 unfinished tasks: You spend more time deciding what to work on than actually working.
Cost 3: Chronic Low-Level Anxiety
Unfinished tasks create a background hum of anxiety.
You might not even notice it consciously, but it’s there:
- Feeling vaguely stressed
- Difficulty relaxing
- Always feeling like you’re forgetting something
- Never feeling “done” for the day
Cost 4: Sleep Disruption
The pattern:
You get in bed. Your brain reviews all the unfinished tasks.
That bug you didn’t fix. That feature you didn’t finish. That email you didn’t send.
Your brain thinks bedtime is planning time.
Result: You lie awake mentally working, or you sleep poorly.
Cost 5: Reduced Enjoyment
Even when you’re not working, unfinished tasks lurk in the background.
You’re at dinner, but thinking about that incomplete refactor. You’re watching a movie, but mentally composing that PR description. You’re on vacation, but worrying about that unfinished project.
The Zeigarnik Effect doesn’t respect boundaries.
How to Use the Zeigarnik Effect to Your Advantage
Here’s the thing: the Zeigarnik Effect isn’t all bad. You can harness it.
Strategy 1: Strategic Incompletion
The idea:
Start a task at the end of your work day so the Zeigarnik Effect keeps it accessible overnight.
How it works:
5:00 PM: Start working on a challenging problem. Spend 30-45 minutes getting into it. Identify the core issue.
5:45 PM: Stop. Don’t finish.
Overnight: Your subconscious continues processing. The Zeigarnik Effect keeps it active.
9:00 AM next day: You return to the problem with fresh insights.
Why this works:
Your brain’s background processing + the Zeigarnik Effect create a form of “sleep coding.”
Hemingway did this: He’d stop writing mid-sentence so he’d be eager to continue the next day.
Strategy 2: The Daily Shutdown Ritual
The problem:
Unfinished tasks prevent mental disengagement.
The solution:
Create a ritual that gives your brain permission to stop tracking tasks.
My shutdown ritual (15 minutes):
- Write down all unfinished tasks in a trusted system (Todoist, Notion, paper)
- Identify tomorrow’s top 3 priorities so I’m not worrying about “what should I work on?”
- Close all browser tabs (bookmark if needed, but close them)
- Close all applications (everything goes in the dock/taskbar)
- Clear my desk physically (all papers in inbox)
- Say out loud: “Work is done. Everything is captured.”
Why this works:
You’re completing the “meta-task” of organizing your work. This releases some Zeigarnik tension.
Your brain trusts that everything is captured, so it stops trying to remember.
Strategy 3: Close Small Loops Immediately
The principle:
If a task takes less than 2 minutes, do it NOW to close the loop.
Examples:
- Reply to that quick email → Close the loop
- Fix that typo in docs → Close the loop
- File that issue you noticed → Close the loop
- Add that TODO comment → Close the loop
Why this works:
Each closed loop is one less thing creating Zeigarnik tension.
The 2-minute rule (from GTD) is actually a Zeigarnik defense mechanism.
Strategy 4: Break Tasks Into Completable Chunks
The problem:
“Refactor the authentication system” is a huge task that stays open for weeks.
The solution:
Break it into completable sub-tasks:
- ✅ Extract auth logic into separate module
- ✅ Write tests for auth module
- ✅ Update login route to use new module
- ✅ Update signup route to use new module
- ✅ Remove old auth code
Why this works:
You get small completion wins. Each subtask closes its loop and releases tension.
The big task stays open, but you’re getting regular Zeigarnik releases.
Strategy 5: The “Parking Lot” Technique
The problem:
You’re in the middle of Task A. You think of something for Task B. Your brain wants to hold onto it.
The solution:
Keep a “parking lot” document open.
When a thought interrupts:
- Write it in the parking lot (literally 5 seconds)
- Return to Task A
Example parking lot:
- Need to update docs for new API endpoint
- Bug: user table migration failing in staging
- Idea: add caching to search endpoint
- Email: Follow up with Sarah about design review
Why this works:
You’ve “captured” the thought (closing that loop) without context-switching to actually do it.
Your brain can let it go because it’s stored externally.
Strategy 6: Use Visual Progress Indicators
The problem:
Long-running tasks with no visible progress create maximum Zeigarnik tension.
The solution:
Add progress indicators:
Examples:
- Checklists: Even if arbitrary, checking boxes feels like progress
- Kanban boards: Moving cards from “In Progress” to “Done” closes loops
- Progress bars: Even fake ones create a sense of progress
- Commit counts: “20/50 files migrated” shows movement
Why this works:
Visible progress partially satisfies the Zeigarnik Effect. You feel like you’re closing the loop incrementally.
Strategy 7: Batch Similar Unfinished Tasks
The problem:
10 unfinished tasks = 10 sources of Zeigarnik tension.
The solution:
Batch them and complete them all at once.
Example:
Individual tension:
- Reply to John’s email
- Reply to Sarah’s email
- Reply to Mike’s email
Batched: “Email responses” batch session, Monday at 2 PM. Complete all three.
Why this works:
Your brain tracks “email responses” as one task, not three.
When you complete the batch, you close multiple loops at once.
Strategy 8: The “Finish What You Start” Rule
The principle:
Before starting anything new, finish something old.
Example:
Want to start a new side project?
First: Close one existing project (ship it, kill it, hand it off—doesn’t matter, just close the loop).
Why this works:
Prevents accumulation of open loops.
Keeps your cognitive load manageable.
When to Ignore the Zeigarnik Effect
Sometimes you SHOULD let things stay unfinished:
Case 1: Low-Value Tasks
If a task is low-value, don’t finish it just to close the loop.
Example:
You started organizing your downloads folder. It’s not important.
Wrong: Spend an hour finishing it because it’s bothering you.
Right: Close the loop by deciding “I’m not doing this” and deleting the task from your list.
Case 2: Sunk Cost Fallacy Triggers
If you’re only finishing something because you started it (not because it’s valuable), stop.
Example:
You started building a feature nobody wants. You’re 70% done.
Zeigarnik says: “Finish it! Close the loop!”
Rational brain says: “This is sunk cost. Kill it.”
Right choice: Kill it. The Zeigarnik discomfort is temporary. Wasting more time is permanent.
Case 3: Procrastination Disguised as Completion
Sometimes “finishing” small tasks is procrastination.
Example:
You should be working on your product launch.
Instead, you’re “finishing” things like:
- Organizing files
- Updating your README
- Refactoring variable names
What’s happening: You’re using the Zeigarnik Effect to justify busywork.
Right choice: Recognize the pattern. Work on the high-value task, even if it stays open longer.
Real-World Applications
Application 1: Email Management
Inbox Zero isn’t about OCD. It’s about the Zeigarnik Effect.
Every email in your inbox is an open loop creating tension.
The solution:
Process to zero daily:
- Reply (close loop)
- Delegate (close loop)
- Schedule action (close loop by adding to task list)
- Archive (acknowledge it doesn’t need action, close loop)
- Delete (explicitly deciding it doesn’t matter, close loop)
Result: Your inbox isn’t a source of background anxiety.
Application 2: Meetings
Why meetings feel unproductive:
Often because they don’t close loops.
Better meetings:
Every meeting ends with:
- Clear decisions made
- Explicit action items assigned
- Next steps scheduled
Result: Participants can mentally “complete” the meeting and move on.
Application 3: Code Reviews
The anxiety of waiting for PR approval?
That’s the Zeigarnik Effect.
Solutions:
For reviewers: Review within 24 hours. Close other people’s loops quickly.
For submitters: While waiting, start something completely different. Don’t sit in the unfinished-PR tension.
Application 4: Shipping Imperfect Products
MVP philosophy is partially about managing the Zeigarnik Effect.
If you wait until the product is “done,” you’ll never ship (infinite open loops).
Instead:
Define “done” narrowly. Ship it. Close the loop.
Then open a NEW loop (v2 improvements).
The Neuroscience Connection
Recent neuroscience research provides more insight:
Working Memory Limits:
Your brain can hold about 4-7 “chunks” in working memory at once.
Each unfinished task occupies a chunk.
Result: Too many unfinished tasks = working memory overflow = everything feels hard.
The Default Mode Network:
When you’re not focused on a task, your brain’s default mode network activates.
It reviews unfinished tasks, plans, worries.
This is why:
- Showers trigger insights (you’re reviewing unfinished tasks)
- Walks help you solve problems (default mode network processing)
- You think about work before bed (DMN reviewing open loops)
Completion releases cognitive resources:
fMRI studies show that task completion triggers dopamine release and reduces activity in anxiety-related brain regions.
Literally closing loops feels good at a neurochemical level.
Final Thoughts: The Art of Completion
The modern world is designed to create open loops:
- Social media notifications (unfinished conversations)
- Email (unfinished requests)
- Streaming services (unfinished series)
- Side projects (unfinished products)
- Tutorials (unfinished learning)
Every company wants you to have open loops with them. That’s how they keep you coming back.
But you pay the cost: constant background anxiety, reduced focus, poor sleep.
The antidote isn’t to finish everything. That’s impossible.
The antidote is to be intentional about what loops you open and ruthless about closing ones that don’t matter.
Some practices that have helped me:
-
Start less. Every new task is a new open loop. Be selective.
-
Finish more. When you start something, commit to finishing it or explicitly killing it.
-
Capture everything. Use a trusted system so your brain doesn’t have to track it all.
-
Close loops daily. End each day by completing small tasks and organizing the rest.
-
Respect the Zeigarnik Effect. Use it strategically (leave interesting problems unfinished overnight) but don’t let it control you (finish or kill everything else).
The goal isn’t zero open loops. That’s life.
The goal is intentional loops that serve you, not haunt you.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to close this loop by publishing this post.
What unfinished tasks are haunting you right now? What would happen if you either finished them or explicitly decided not to? Let me know.