Many people know these days when they feel empty and overwhelmed, even though nothing special has happened. What could be the reason and, above all, what might help.
Most people can handle it well if they feel tired and lacking energy after a strenuous, stressful time – after all, they were under a lot of stress, perhaps accomplished something, or at least gave a lot. However, if we are broken, even though our everyday lives are largely going their way and nothing in particular is bothering us apart from the usual worries and tasks, it can be difficult to accept and classify. In some cases it may help to know the Zeigarnik effect.
Why things we don’t do can cost us energy
The effect is named after the Russian psychologist Blyuma Zeigarnik, who was one of the first to scientifically examine and describe it. The initial observation that is repeatedly reported in connection with the Zeigarnik effect is that service staff in restaurants are apparently better at remembering details of unpaid orders than details of orders that they have already cashed in and cleared away. So the topic is: We pay more attention to unfinished tasks than to completed ones. They keep us more occupied and our brain invests more energy in them.
On the one hand, we can use this to remember things or tell exciting stories – keyword cliffhangers. On the other hand, the Zeigarnik effect can wear us down if we carry a lot of open issues with us. Especially if we can’t just sort it out and conclude it. It is anything but unlikely that this will happen to us in this day and age of full, varied lives, the simultaneity and speed of impulses, stimuli and demands caused by various technologies.
Whether it’s an unanswered message, an appointment that hasn’t been fully set yet or the question of when and where we’re going on vacation, all the possibilities that our current world offers us can sometimes unnoticed cost us energy. For most people, there are more serious open issues such as an increase in electricity prices, a progressive illness of relatives or a conflict in an intimate relationship.
In two sentences: We understand that it costs us energy when we do a lot. But the fact that things that we don’t do can tire us out in a similar way is explained by the Zeigarnik effect.
What helps? 3 useful strategies
One instruction for action that results from the Zeigarnik effect is obvious: If we don’t want a matter to drain us of energy, the best thing to do is to get it done. But usually it’s not that easy or it’s not just up to us. In all of these general cases, the following strategies can help to at least weaken the Zeigarnik effect.
Prioritize and delete
Some people find it helpful to keep to-do lists to get the issues that are bothering them out of their minds. Other people still remember their open tasks after writing them down. In an article for Psychology Today, psychologist Corey Wilks recommends that these people should radically prioritize and choose no more than three things for which they want and need to find a solution. Which three open questions are most important to clarify in order to live as closely as possible according to one’s own values and ideals? Once identified, these are the only items that belong on the to-do list. With everything else, it ultimately doesn’t matter or at least isn’t that bad if they clear up on their own or pop up again at a later point in time and then take our toll.
Practice procrastination
As humans, we feel a need to shape our future and be aware of what is happening. Some of our everyday open issues that drain us of mental energy may be related to this need – for example, the time, the meeting place, or the schedule of an appointment. Or the approaching organization of professional care for the mother. How much such things concern us, however, is a question of type or a question of attitude and habit. Some people have a natural tendency to put things off – and not deal with them – until they absolutely have to. Others get nervous if they don’t have a plan C and D ready in addition to plans A and B. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages – both can be at least somewhat reduced and retrained if those affected decide that the disadvantages of their approach outweigh them.
Anyone who suffers from the Zeigarnik effect can, for example, try to consciously assign issues that concern the future but are already costing them energy today to their future self, i.e. to push them into the area of responsibility of the version of themselves that will be in three days or six months or whenever will exist. Sometimes theoretical-rational considerations can also help to weaken the urge to organize for the future and to cultivate the attitude “I’ll cross the bridge when I get there”: for example, the idea that a problem can solve itself without our effort, or that, that most factors cannot be predicted.
As I said, leaving things until the last minute will not only bring benefits. But it rarely hurts to have at least an idea of how it could work.
Routines
If we recognize recurring open topics in our everyday lives that keep us busy and drain energy, it may make sense to rethink and adapt our routines. For example, if we ask ourselves every other lunchtime what we would like to cook or eat in the evening and where we would go shopping on the way home, we could consider establishing new rituals – Taco Tuesday and Catholic Fish Friday or something like that . Or our concentration wanes every afternoon at 3 p.m. because we then remember that we still have six emails to answer: Maybe a permanent email reply blocker would do us good. Certainly, on one hand, routines are unpleasant and restrictive and oppressive – especially too many and those that we are afraid to break. But their big advantage is: They relieve us of the workload and free up a lot of capacity. Especially those that would otherwise be swallowed up by the Zeigarnik effect.