Ovsiankina Effect: Confronting Your Unfinished Tasks

I’d like to help you, dear reader & fellow white-collar worker, to tackle your lingering to-do list.

I commiserate and must confess that my backlog and other to-do lists are chock-full of unfinished tasks—some dating time immemorial, namely the pre-pandemic times of 2020.

Just thinking about them makes me wince in regret and shame. I have tasks that are as old as my friends’ toddlers. But I have been making strides to confront my unfriendly task list.

Our team’s unfriendly task list – „Orphan tasks” in Paymo.

In this article, I’ll first share some insight into Ovsiankina’s research and how I used it to create momentum.

Then I’ll share my strategies for completing tasks. Surely, they’re not new under the sun, but these tips have been tailored for exactly this purpose of completing unfinished tasks.

Here’s how to tackle your backlog and uncomplicate your work.

What is the Ovsiankina Effect

We tend to remember unfinished tasks more easily than completed tasks, which has been observed as the Zeigarnik Effect.

In response to Bluma Zeigarnik’s research on task completion, Maria Ovsiankina’s PhD thesis (1928) focused on how people act when interrupted from completing a task.

Ovsiankina noted the psychology behind the individuals’ inclination to resume interrupted actions when these haven’t been achieved.

Simply put, the Ovsiankina Effect is the urge or need to resume interrupted actions.

When actions are interrupted, our brains are regularly reminded of them, making room for intrusive thoughts aimed at taking up those tasks again.

If harnessed properly, the Ovsiankina Effect can be helpful for productivity, as it can create a strong desire to complete a task that has been left unfinished.

If left unchecked, ruminating on those intrusive thoughts is detrimental to mental health, feeling overwhelmed by the pressure of always having to finish work.

For instance, people may find it difficult to switch off from work if they leave a task unfinished over the weekend.

Or they just can’t seem to detach from their projects, which are always running in the back of their minds even when vacationing.

Leaving one unfinished mandatory reading over the weekend might not break you, but imagine dealing with a sizable writing project, like an academic paper or dissertation.

The explanation is that under the Ovsiankina Effect, even if we don’t have an actual incentive to finish that task, the very fact that it was left unfinished turns that action into a “quasi-need.”

What is a quasi-need?

A quasi-need is an acquired need based on intent or purpose. It is an induced want or desire that is not a full-blown physiological need like hunger and thirst or a psychological need like attachment and a sense of belonging.

Quasi-needs are deficiency-oriented (they stem from a perceived lacking) and situationally reactive, representing unfulfilled goals that produce tension states in your psyche.

This means that a quasi-need arises as a reaction to a situation. For instance:

• needing money to pay rent
• needing warm clothes during winter
• needing a good grade to pass an exam

You wouldn’t need money if there weren’t a need for it in society. You don’t need an umbrella if it never rains.

A quasi-need is acquired based on your own experience, learning, and development.

For example, a non-driver might not understand someone’s quasi-need to get their license. Once they’ve started taking classes, they need to finish well and get their license; otherwise, they’ve wasted time and money and still not driving.

Or, when a colleague shares that they need to hit that target to get that promotion, their perceived want is situational. Obviously, it’s not a matter of life or death, but their desire is legit, nevertheless.

This is why the Ovsiankina Effect catalyzes your quasi-needs – because you’ve been disrupted and you are almost done with your work, you need to finish it today.

Leaving it hanging will only frustrate the individual. Combine this frustration with procrastination, and you’ve got some trouble.

The Ovsiankina Effect in action

More often than not, our own imposed quasi-needs create unwanted stress.

So, is that nagging task something you must finish for work, for a client, or a friend, or is it something you need to finish for yourself?

This is a simple flow of how I experience the Ovsiankina effect:

Scenario 1:

1. I’d be working on my significant project.
2. I’d get interrupted by a simple task needing my input, such as a scheduling conflict. I’d email or make a call to fix the appointment.
3. After finishing the simple task, I’d remember I was working on my project [Ovsiankina Effect].
4. If the project were nowhere to be finished, I’d reason with myself, “If I got disrupted from my flow, I might as well finish this other small task since it won’t take long.”
5. If the project were almost done, I’d press ahead with a Pomodoro session to finish my work.

Scenario 2:

1. I’d be working on my significant project.
2. I’d get interrupted by an urgent task requiring swift completion, such as troubleshooting or an important task with a tight deadline—read: “as soon as possible.”
3. After finishing the urgent task, I’d remember I was working on my project [Ovsiankina Effect].
4. But because the urgent task took half a day to finish, I’d have to postpone the hanging task until the next day.
5. Frustratingly enough, I’d have to work on another pressing deadline the next day.
6. Then, I’d mentally check my schedule and note that it would take another 4 or 5 days (!) of other deadlines and commitments until I got the extra time to focus on my significant project.

These scenarios might sound familiar to some of you.

I know my issue is operating on a strict timeline with tight due dates. Oftentimes, I’m the one imposing those deadlines upon myself.

Plus, my flow has much to do with Sternberg’s theory of Mental Self-Government in how I approach tasks, i.e., can you multitask? More on his theory later.

But those of you who know how missing one day of scheduled work for that big task will unintendedly push that hanging task even further, you’ll know what that mental pressure feels like.

It’s like my mental Gantt chart with its dependencies gets disrupted and needs rescheduling, which leads me to the next section:

The burden of incompletion

Not finishing tasks with a (self-)imposed deadline takes a toll on your mental health, which is not to say you’re weak-willed or flawed. It’s simply a by-product of stress, missed deadlines, and high cognitive load.

Hanging tasks chip away at your focus and sense of accomplishment.

The problem with hanging tasks is that all those pesky unfinished tasks created a web of intrusive thoughts in my mind going on repeat every day.

In a sense, you can hardly disconnect from unfinished tasks due to Ovsiankina’s Effect.

This effect wouldn’t be such a terrible thing—on the contrary—except for the burden of remembering your unfinished and overdue work.

That’s when people lack focus and ruminate on what that unfinished task entails, from disappointing stakeholders to missing out on financial opportunities.

Then, days and nights blend in an attempt to make progress, with that hanging to-do list piling up, resulting in sleepless nights.

To make matters worse, weekdays and weekends would then blend because of the poor focus throughout the day.

You can see where this is going – burnout.

7-Point Checklist

Here’s my simple checklist or process for tackling my backlog.

1. Take Inventory of all tasks and projects

Don’t avoid taking inventory of your work, even if you initially find it uncomfortable. Do it systematically:

• First, organize all your tasks, projects, fleeting thoughts, and notes. I frequently mentally check all my projects, initiatives, and quasi-needs. Review your backlog and pipeline to ensure you don’t have projects scattered over your digital workspaces.
• Second, have a single source of truth, or at least one that allows quick access and integration. I use Paymo for project management, Google Drive for file management, Docs, Spreadsheets, and a note app for my digital work.
• Third, develop a seamless system and refine it over the years.

Now that everything is within sight, you clearly understand your unfinished tasks.

2. Prioritize by establishing impact

Sternberg’s theory of mental self-government recognizes four different thinking styles: monarchic, hierarchic, oligarchic, and anarchic.

• The monarchic individual is the monotasker who is single-minded, laser-focused, and likes to finish tasks and projects one at a time.
• The hierarchic individual is the multitasker who is flexible and adaptive based on the situation. It can efficiently assign priority to multiple tasks and projects and finish them by importance.
• The oligarchic individual is the multitasker who is flexible and enthused by multiple projects requiring competing approaches. However, s/he has trouble prioritizing tasks and can only efficiently handle them if they are equally important.
• The anarchic individual is the tasker who is by far the most flexible and has either no or peculiar approaches to how to get anything done.

If your task management style is like mine, i.e., the oligarchic style, you can juggle multiple projects but have problems establishing which is more important.

The Eisenhower matrix is excellent for prioritization, but you’ll probably want to lean on some metrics.

Use an impact score of your choice. That could be:

• the RICE scoring model (Reach x Impact x Confidence all divided by Effort)
• the ICE scoring model (Impact x Confidence x Ease)
• the KANO model analysis (Threshold, Performance, Excitement Attributes)
• the Fibonacci sequence (each number is the sum of the preceding two) used in sprints if you’re in agile or product development.

Even a simple formula in which you divide the Impact of your task by its Difficulty can help you prioritize your tasks.

Here’s an effective technique:

1. List all your unfinished tasks.
2. Assign a Difficulty score from 1 to 3, where one is the lowest in difficulty.
3. Assign an Impact score from 1 to 5, where five is the highest impact.
4. Divide Impact by Difficulty to get your score.
5. Sort your tasks in descending order. For example, a 5.00 task is super impactful yet easy to do. Start with that one and go from there.
6. Resolve to discard tasks under 2.00, meaning they’re either too difficult and not worth the hassle or too insignificant, even if they are easy.

This simple impact score will help you prioritize your task list.

Also, it’s good to:

3. “Kill your darlings”

The famous advice from experienced writers, “kill your darlings,” means eliminating any part of your writing, such as characters, scenes, sentences, or side plots, that, while you might love them, don’t serve your story.

Applied to your work, it suggests eliminating most tasks and activities that ultimately don’t serve your broader goal.

If you juggle 100 tasks and interests, you’ll have to put some down.

I’m inspired and intrigued by Warren Buffet’s 5/25 Rule—though debunked.

This productivity technique involves creating two lists: an A-list of the top five most important goals or tasks and a B-list of the remaining 20 goals or tasks. Then resolve to work only on the most important five from the A-list.

It’s essential that you write the list, stick to it, and review it once in a while to make sure you’re on track.

Why should you embargo your secondary goals?

It’s because all the things you give a first shot open up new opportunities and subsequently remain unfinished somewhere in the back of your brain. You need to invest more time to pursue them to “level up” or to finish them—time you probably don’t have.

The Ovsiankina Effect will kick in randomly throughout the day, reminding you of that cooking class you took and haven’t finished. Or remind you of the endless possibilities and recipes you should try and master.

But because time is our most valuable resource, we must actively purge our ever-growing list of things we want to pursue.

You are ruthlessly prioritizing the highest ROI projects by resolving to avoid undertaking certain passions or projects.

To make things easier when killing your darling, resolve to focus on your most significant five aims or one meaningful project for half a year or a year—make it quarterly if you need to test this strategy out.

4. Delegate

If there’s simply too much to be done that has to be done: delegate. You’ve got two popular options:

1. Subcontract or outsource your work. Hire a virtual assistant or a skilled gig worker to get it done for you.
2. Train or mentor a subordinate to fill in your shoes.

Why do people find it so difficult to delegate?

The Principal-Agent problem arises with delegation, though not in its truest economic sense. The P-A problem is “a conflict in priorities between the owner of an asset (Principal) and the person to whom control of the asset has been delegated (Agent).”

So, there’s the Principal (you, the CEO, the manager, or the mentor) and the Agent (your subordinate, your deputy, your mentee).

The Principal-Agent problem argues that an Agent may pursue their self-interest rather than the Principal’s, and the business may be run inefficiently.

That is understandable since your subordinate might not have the drive, vision, or know-how to achieve your goal. However, true success in management lies in delegation.

Suppose the Principal-Agent problem is not an issue for you, and you’re eager to delegate. Follow these tips to identify the tasks from your workload that can be delegated:

1. Make a list of tasks you are currently doing or need to do.

2. Determine if or which level of delegation is appropriate. Only some things can be delegated, so it’s important to identify the right tasks to delegate. Follow my flowchart:

3. If you’re training or mentoring your Agent, establish a list of tasks to be delegated that the Agent agrees upon.

4. Clearly articulate the desired outcome and constraints of the delegated task(s). The onus is on you to convey the project brief.

5. Provide context and guidance. Communication is critical: one-on-ones, status checks, and touchpoint meetings work really well.

6. Give genuine praise and feedback.

Delegation helps prevent (your) burnout and overwork while allowing team members to develop their skills.

To delegate correctly, please understand that you should only delegate authority, not responsibility. True to its definition, “to delegate” is authorizing and sending another person as one’s representative.

In other words, give the guy the means and power to achieve your set goal—not without proper guidance and within constraints, for sure. Otherwise, you’re not enabling your delegate but burdening the poor soul to shoulder your responsibility.

5. Learn to handle interruptions

Sune Carlson’s Law of homogeneous sequences states that tasks take longer when involuntarily interrupted.

Therefore, minimizing interruptions can help us complete tasks more efficiently.

Carlson propounded deep work and advocated for “one task at a time.” But if your thinking style is not monarchic, that might not be as easy or natural for you.

Granted, we could all use fewer distractions, so I’ll leave some tips for you to consider:

• Minimize environmental distractions: use noise-canceling headphones, tidy your desk, and set up a desk partition, especially when working remotely.
• Minimize digital distractions: set email filters, use Do not disturb or block/snooze certain notifications, blacklist apps, etc.
• Minimize social distractions: mute Slack conversations during your focus time, and opt for asynchronous communication when possible.
• Establish a work schedule.
• Block out focus time.

When organizations minimize interruptions, employees work more efficiently. If “Don’t Disturb Unless Urgent” is part of the workplace culture, team members will agree with people on the meetings and collaboration that avoid unjustified disruptions.

6. Learn to manage your multitasking

Thanks to frameworks like Cal Newport’s deep work, you can make the case that monotasking is the only way to be efficient with your time and mental focus. But, as I’ve mentioned Sternberg, not everyone is wired for monotasking.

We all need to learn how to manage or optimize multitasking by eliminating context-switching.

It’s OK to research, write, then edit, then read some more, then edit, then write again. This might seem like multitasking, but your focus is uninterrupted, thanks to the context sameness.

With complex projects, you have to keep a lot of information in your head at once, and you can’t allow yourself to switch context since that will deplete your mental energy, and you’ll forget the information in the short-term memory.

However, if you’re researching, writing an email to Pam, then writing, checking your Slack, editing, sending that invoice to your client, and writing again—you can see how this kind of multitasking is detrimental to your focus. You won’t be able to engage with your work thoroughly.

So:

• Break down large tasks into smaller subtasks
• Bundle tasks by context or cognitive skills, e.g., attention, problem-solving
• Ensure your context remains the same when juggling tasks
• Focus on finishing your tasks one at a time
• Avoid context-switching unless absolutely necessary

Effort Lost to Context Switching

7. Timeblock those pesky tasks

Speaking of context sameness, what do you do about those pesky little tasks that need to be done yet are miscellaneous by nature?

I set aside a block of time for “sushi tasks” – those bite-sized, miscellaneous tasks that need to be done. I do those in my yellow-reddish zone of focus every other day or so.

My ‘sushi tasks’ don’t require perfect execution, so I set a Pomodoro timer (10- or 25-minute intervals) to cross off as many as possible.

I gamify this, as any ENFJ would, to get some intrinsic reward for doing boring/tedious tasks. So, I get a high score for finishing as many as possible. I try to genuinely enjoy the process of finishing a task.

The trick is that they have to be bite-sized – first, you know precisely the steps to execute the task; second, you know you can finish it in a Pomodoro.

How do I go about doing this? I’ve got two options.

1. I start a stopwatch session (i.e., “Sushi tasks”) and simply stop the timer when my timeblock is over.
2. I let Paymo Track run in the background, and at the end of my timeblock, I select timestamps from my Agenda view and create task entries.

Paymo Track: Agenda view.

An automatic time tracker is hands-down the best tool to have in your toolbox—all you need to do is leave it running in the background and then link timestamps to activities. It’s how I get accurate time entries and know where my time is going.

Do this minutiae timeblock once a week if and only if your sushi tasks can’t be delegated (Check #4) or discarded (Check #3).

The art of closure

As I’ve outlined, the Ovsiankina Effect highlights the persistent desire to complete interrupted tasks, creating intrusive thoughts and a quasi-need to resume the task. This effect persists until the task is completed or resolved.

Resolving unfinished tasks is the best feeling ever.

Besides the dopamine surge, knowing you’ve finished those pesky tasks and crossed them off your list makes room that should not be filled up so easily.

Please resolve not to commit to other tasks until you get a hold of your commitment inventory, recover your peace of mind, and establish a healthy, sustainable work pace.

Give yourself a few days off to celebrate your good work.

Also, bookmark this page to steal & improve my checklist.

Cheers to as many tasks off your plate as possible!