Beware of ‘completion Bias’ When Working With Your to-Do List
Crossing something off your to-do list is great, and it can even make you more productive. However, the same feeling can prevent you from tackling bigger, more important tasks.
Completion bias is when your brain deliberately seeks the pleasure of completing a task. Francesca Gino, a professor at Harvard Business School, and Bradley States, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, explain that completion bias can make you focus only on small tasks because you want to experience that positive feeling more. You spend the day doing small, easy tasks (like answering emails, doing strenuous work, or other general household chores) and you feel like you’re being productive. But when you look back at what you have done in a day, you realize that you have hardly influenced your actual work. Unchecked, completion bias can drastically reduce your productivity and even ruin your ability to make a decent to-do list.
To fix this, Gino and States suggest that you mix your tasks so you don’t get tricky. Do a simple task, then use that good feeling as an impetus to tackle a harder task and repeat. And when you write your to-do lists, be sure to include the harder tasks that will impact your important work, along with the easy ones. You can find out more at the link below.
Your Desire to Follow Up Can Undermine Your Effectiveness | Harvard Business Review