Dealing with Zeigarnik
I came across this riddle on an Insta reel: “How do you spell ‘Candy’ with only 2 letters?” It was one of those annoying two-part posts where the creator wanted me to wait for their next reel to find the answer.
Despite scrolling past it to start my work day, it kept coming back, persistent like a clingy child.
“Damn!” I thought, recognizing the Zeigarnik effect in action. This psychological phenomenon is well-recognized for our tendency to remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed ones.
In simple terms, if you start doing something but don’t finish it, your mind tends to keep thinking about it, sending reminder to your conscious mind at seemingly random times. This effect suggests that our brains have a natural inclination to seek closure and resolution for tasks we’ve started. It’s like having a mental to-do list that nags at us until we finish what we’ve started.
But, I recently learned that there is an easy way to deal with this.
An experiment suggests that the mental can go away if we just MAKE A PLAN to deal with the unfinished chore/conversation/book.
Just making a plan is good enough as it tells your brain that it will be handled as per the plan. *phew*
I applied it boiling milk, a task through which I usually multitask daily, but am constantly worried about it boiling over. I started by setting a timer on Alexa, to check in the milk at regular intervals and sure enough, I could easily go back to other tasks without having to worry about checking in on the milk after and rushing to the stove.
Experts also suggest a similar approach to anxiety which suggests setting some time our diaries to worry/overthink/stress out actually makes us better functioning adults through the rest of the time.
Designers can address the Zeigarnik effect in UX design by anticipating potential interruptions in user journeys, and providing cues for task completion. Building in progress indicators, feedback and confirmation messaging, save and resume feature can effectively reduce the stress that people experience while using applications that need them to pay attention and complete tasks.
Designers and businesses also use this to increase sales when giving a teaser of a news article behind a paywall.
For my puzzle cliffhanger, I decided to look for the part2 video later in the day, but the answer came to me as I was heating up my coffee — and I discarded my carefully laid plan.
I was positively pleased and decidedly disappointed that my subconscious chose to prioritize the "Candy" conundrum instead of solving for bigger issues like world peace.
K and D
Originally posted on my LinkedIN
