The Zeigarnik Effect And You
If most of our tasks are often interrupted, will we even remember where we left off?
Roaring Rivers
Torrents, currents, and ripples by Christyl Rivers, PhD.
Are you being served, or interrupted?
Simply put, the Zeigarnik effect is our human capacity to take up a task right where we left off — at the point at which we were interrupted.
It was postulated by Bluma Zeigarnik, Lithuanian psychologist, who observed a waiter can keep many orders in his head, even while busy retrieving meals, talking to staff and customers, and setting and moving plates.
But I can’t help but note this was decades ago, when social interaction was in a physical realm, and with directly communicated interaction. We don’t seem to have that much these days.
Today most of our experience is “in the system.”
Today, we have data input and output. Even at some restaurants. It feels as though a much higher majority of our tasks are interrupted. I have come to wonder if the Zeigarnik effect still holds.
