I have a confession – I am really struggling to keep the details of life straight these days and my flow of work/thought is just not where it usually. I pride myself on being very organized and efficient so when I find myself going back to the same email three times to pull out the relevant facts or hitting rewind on my audiobook because I could not remember the thread of the theory being discussed or jumping between open tabs on my computer because I am like a magpie chasing the next shiny object I know something is going on for me.

It was in one of my unfocused wanders through the World Wide Web that I stumbled on the Zeigarnik effect. This is a psychologically studied phenomenon that indicates that a person will remember an uncompleted or interrupted task better than they will a completed task. First identified in 1927 and the initial findings revealed that participants were able to recall details of interrupted tasks around 90% better than those that they had been able to complete undisturbed. The theory has been studied a great deal since then and brings doubt to the long-held notion of “cramming” for exams, instead suggesting that it is better to study in shorter chunks of time with breaks (interruptions) at regular intervals in order to solidify the learning in working memory, therefore aiding in retention.

Perhaps my experiment next week will be to purposefully break down my to-do list and add some interruptions to see if I can actually get more accomplished!