The 3 Categories of Tasks to Accomplish

We focus on the individual items on our list so we can cross them off and feel a sense of achievement. But really what have we accomplished?

June 01, 2021

If you went to Catholic school and were taught by nuns of any order, you likely heard a word that was not in the dictionary but was vitally important to the curriculum: “Sticktoitiveness.” Once you started something, you had to finish it, no matter how grueling. “Sticktoitiveness” applied to all aspects of our lives, from work to reading books to shopping lists.

Years later, it’s taken a slightly different form. We often begin each morning with a piece of paper composing our to-do list. If you’re searching Google for an app to help store your sacred list, a million results are available. Clearly, people need and want these. We believe we must complete these listed tasks or else we haven’t accomplished anything all day.

There is a critical concept for what the nuns were teaching. It’s called completion bias, which refers to people's tendency to want to finish any task they’ve started. We focus on the individual items on our list so we can cross them off and feel a sense of achievement. But really what have we accomplished?

"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," says Francesca Gino, a Harvard Business School professor who's studied completion bias and its effects on productivity at work.

So, how do we avoid falling prey to crossing off the easy items without feeling overly satisfied?

Start by making three columns:

EASY CHALLENGING LONG RANGE

Put only three or four items in your easy column and do these first. Completing small tasks fuels your motivation, releases endorphins into your brain, and makes you feel happy and ready to do more, thus allowing you to take on the next challenge. These small tasks are similar to a warm up before a game. After handling the one challenging project of the day, then nibble away at a long-range task, something that will take weeks to cross off.

By doing all three at once, we condition our brains to not become obsessed with completion bias.

We don’t have to stick to every task until it’s finished. We can instead move freely between the easy and the challenging without feeling unsatisfied.