The Psychology of Completion: Leveraging the Desire to Finish for Enhanced Productivity

In a recent episode of the Before Breakfast podcast, host Laura Vandercam explores a fascinating paradox in human behavior: our innate desire to complete tasks, even when doing so may be financially or logically irrational. By understanding the psychological drivers behind this need for closure, individuals and managers can better structure their work to boost productivity and maintain focus.

The Paradox of Completion

Drawing on research from the Harvard Business Review by Ayelet Fishbach and Annabelle Roberts, the podcast highlights that people often prefer to pay or be paid sooner, even when it is not in their best financial interest to do so. A classic example is the urge to pay off a mortgage early, even though investing that same money in the stock market might yield higher returns.

This behavior is rooted in what the authors call the "promise of relief." Humans have a natural inclination to achieve a "sense of completion." When a task remains unfinished, it often "hangs over our heads," creating a psychological burden. Consequently, the "psychological benefit of closure" often outweighs minor time or financial gains, leading people to prioritize finishing tasks quickly over optimizing for efficiency.

The Downside: The Trap of Easy Tasks

While the urge to finish is a powerful motivator, it comes with a significant pitfall: the tendency to prioritize easy, low-impact tasks. Because we crave the satisfaction of closing a loop, we often gravitate toward quick wins—like clearing out an inbox—rather than "wrestling with harder stuff" where the payoff is delayed and the progress is less immediate. This tendency can distract us from high-priority goals that require sustained effort.

Reframing Goals for Sustained Motivation

To overcome the temptation to prioritize trivial tasks, the podcast suggests a strategic approach: reframing important goals as a series of smaller tasks.

For managers, this means breaking down large, complex projects into incremental steps. By doing so, each completed step provides the "feeling of closure" that employees crave. For example, instead of viewing "hiring a new marketing firm" as one monolithic goal, a manager can break it down into:

• Gathering team insights
• Writing a request for proposals (RFP)
• Circulating the RFP
• Conducting screening and panel interviews
• Finalizing the contract

Each of these steps acts as a discrete goal that is "satisfying to complete," keeping the employee engaged and preventing them from getting "pulled away" by easier, less important tasks.

Practical Application for Individuals

This logic is equally applicable to individual contributors. You do not need a manager to structure your work; you can personally identify "distinct phases" in your own projects. By treating every incremental milestone as a "goal that it will be satisfying to finish," you create your own positive reinforcement loop.

Ultimately, rather than lamenting that human behavior is sometimes irrational, the podcast concludes that we are better off "leveraging what we know about human behavior to nudge us in the direction we want to go." By intentionally giving ourselves tasks to finish, we can harness our natural psychological tendencies to increase our productivity and find greater satisfaction in our daily work.