You know how having too many open Chrome tabs bogs your computer down?

The same happens to your brain.

Unfinished tasks keep "running" in the background.

It's called the Zeigarnik Effect.

Here's how it works and what to do about it:

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Quick History:

Named after Dr. Bluma Zeigarnik.

While sitting in a busy restaurant in Vienna, she noticed the waiters had better memories of unpaid orders vs. paid ones.

Once the bill was paid, they struggled to remember the exact details of the orders.

But why?

1/ Our brains are wired to remember unfinished tasks better than completed ones.

Like a to-do list, once we finish a task, our brain checks it off the list to free up mental bandwidth.

The more unfinished tasks, the more resources our brain dedicates to keeping track of them.

2/ Storytellers leverage the Zeigarnik Effect with cliffhangers.

We keep reading/watching to find out what happens next because our brains are driven to seek closure.

Once resolved, we can forget and move on.

Until then, we lean in with rapt attention.

3/ It's another reason blocking uninterrupted time for deep work is important.

What most call "multi-tasking" is actually task-switching.

The ZE is one reason we suck at it.

When we're doing something and get interrupted, our brain keeps that "tab" open—draining our CPU.