Feel Busy but Nothing Getting Done? It’s Probably Completion Bias

I love to-do lists.  I mean love them. I have the sneaking suspicion they’re not working for me, though.

Why?

There are certain items on the list which have the nasty habit of staying around day after day, week after week, never getting checked off.

I thought I just had too many things on the list and needed to be more judicious about what I do–perhaps say no more often.

But when I look at the list, ready to cut away all the task fat, I can’t quite bring myself to get rid of much.  All the veteran items are pretty good.  They tend to be the important, substantive things.

I was reading an article this morning when I came across a term which precisely identifies my problem.

Completion bias.

I did a bit of research.

“…human brains are wired to seek completion and the pleasure it brings — a tendency we term “completion bias.” Completing simple tasks, such as answering emails or posting updates on your Twitter account, takes little time and allows you to check off items on your to-do list. Our ongoing research (not yet published) has found that checking off items is psychologically rewarding: After you complete a task, being able to literally check a box makes you happier than when you are not given a box to check.”

Source: Harvard Business Review

That is exactly me.  I have literally added something to my list which I’ve just completed–just so I could immediately check it off!

It turns out that this is not necessarily bad.  The research described in the HBR article found that knocking out a couple of easy tasks actually sets us up mentally to succeed at larger, more substantive ones.  The risk is becoming addicted to the easy tasks and only doing those all day.

Not Immortal Action Step
Since I know I’m not immortal and need to make the most of my time, I will:

Build a single-day (or maybe single-week) to-do list from a task backlog.  These smaller lists will have some small items, but also the big guys.  This will prevent cherry-picking all the easy stuff first.