Why Solicitors Struggle to Let Go of Unfinished Tasks

Have you ever been unable to stop thinking about an unfinished task, even when you are supposed to be resting? Do tasks weigh on your mind far more than the ones you have completed? If so, you are not alone. This mental phenomenon is known as the Zeigarnik effect and it plays a significant role in how we process work and manage priorities. It can even cause us to experience stress.

The Science Behind the Zeigarnik Effect

Bluma Zeigarnik first observed this effect while sitting in a café in Vienna. She noticed that waiters had an excellent memory for unpaid orders but quickly forgot them once the bill had been settled. Intrigued, she conducted experiments in which participants were given a series of tasks to complete. Some were interrupted before they could finish, while others completed their tasks without disruption. The results showed that people were significantly more likely to remember unfinished tasks than completed ones.

This phenomenon occurs because the human brain seeks closure. An unfinished task creates cognitive tension, prompting the mind to keep it in focus until it is resolved. This mechanism helps us remember to complete important activities, but it can also lead to persistent rumination when resolution is not possible.

Why the Zeigarnik Effect Matters

In the professional world, the Zeigarnik effect can be both a strength and a challenge. On one hand, it helps keep important tasks at the forefront of our minds, preventing them from being forgotten. On the other, it can lead to stress and even burnout, particularly in roles where work is continuous, deadlines shift and projects drag on for long periods of time.

When legal professionals constantly dwell on unfinished work, it can become difficult for them to then mentally disengage. This ongoing cognitive strain can lead to chronic stress, reduced concentration and emotional exhaustion. Over time, the inability to switch off from work-related concerns can disrupt sleep, impair decision making as well as diminish overall job satisfaction. However by implementing strategies to externalise tasks, define stopping points, and utilise outsourced support, legal professionals can prevent the Zeigarnik effect from becoming a driver of burnout, ensuring long-term productivity and well-being.

Strategies for Optimising the Zeigarnik Effect for Productivity & Well-Being

1. Use Written Systems to Offload Mental Load

The Zeigarnik effect means that unfinished tasks stay on your mind, making it harder to concentrate on new ones. A simple way to ease this mental burden is to write down unresolved tasks in an organized way. That is where tools like:

Case plans
Checklists
To-do lists

Can be really useful as it breaks that cycle.

2. Define Clear Stopping Points for Unfinished Tasks

Legal work is rarely completed immediately. Many cases evolve over weeks, months or even years, making it difficult to achieve closure. However, creating artificial stopping points can prevent unfinished tasks from lingering in one's mind. Examples include:

Setting time limits for tasks
Completing one section of a legal document before pausing work on it

Taking clear breaks during work stops unfinished tasks from weighing on your mind and helps you stay productive.

3. Manage Client Expectations to Reduce Mental Overload

Many clients may not fully understand the timeframes involved in legal matters, as many conveyancers will attest. Therefore, providing an overview of expected case progression and potential delays can help set realistic expectations from the outset. Clients often expect fast responses, especially in urgent legal cases, which adds additional strain and pressure on legal professionals.

To alleviate this burden:

Set clear expectations with clients regarding timeframes, response times and case progression
Ensure clients are kept appraised of any changes to timescales during the lifetime of the case
Use holding responses to acknowledge outstanding matters while avoiding unnecessary stress

By setting clear expectations with clients, legal professionals can create structured stopping points and ease strain and pressure, meaning that these tasks are not constantly weighing on their minds.

4. Use the Zeigarnik Effect to Stay Motivated

Although the Zeigarnik effect can be mentally taxing, it can also be harnessed to drive productivity. Since the brain naturally fixates on unfinished work, legal professionals can use this to maintain motivation and momentum.

For example:

Stopping mid-way through drafting an agreement can create a natural incentive to resume work with clarity
Leaving an attendance note unfinished it can make it easier to pick up where one left off the next day

By strategically pausing tasks at engaging points, legal professionals can use cognitive tension as a tool for efficiency.

5. Use Dictation and Outsourced Transcription to Speed Up Work

Many legal professionals spend hours typing up file notes, attendance notes, drafting documents, and bespoke letters and emails.

A more efficient approach is to dictate rather than type. But why is dictation more efficient than typing a document ourselves? Well, the simple fact is that we can all speak considerably faster than we can physically type:

“The average person types between 38 and 40 words per minute”.

A “good rate of speech ranges between 140 -160 words per minute.”

In other words, dictation is up to four times faster than typing. Therefore, simply dictating a document is more cost-efficient, allowing fee earners to dedicate more time to fee generation.

By outsourcing dictation files, fee earners can focus on completing more work, reducing the Zeigarnik effect. This also results in fee earners working outside of working hours and from dwelling on more tasks outside of the working day. It also offers significant cost benefits: a fee earner who spends two hours a day typing effectively loses 1.5 hours of chargeable time. For a fee earner with a charge-out rate of £300 per hour, this equates to a loss of £450 for the firm if they type their own documents. In contrast, the cost of document production with OutSec Legal would be only £42 plus VAT.

Over the course of a year, this loss would amount to £96,000 after deducting transcription costs.

A simple switch can therefore deliver substantial returns on investment while also providing essential support to fee earners. Additionally, it helps reduce the Zeigarnik effect, which can contribute to stress and burnout and also means they have a better work/life balance. So making this change is a win-win for all!

Conclusion

The Zeigarnik effect is a powerful cognitive mechanism that can both help and hinder legal professionals. While it ensures important tasks are not forgotten, it also contributes to stress and difficulty disengaging from work. The nature of legal practice means that unresolved matters are common, yet managing the cognitive burden is crucial to maintaining both productivity and well-being.

By externalising tasks, breaking work into structured steps, managing client expectations, leveraging dictation, and outsourcing transcription, legal professionals can transform cognitive tension into greater efficiency, reduced stress, and improved work-life balance.

Are you ready to free your mind from the burden of unfinished work? Discover how OutSec Legal’s transcription services can help you reclaim valuable time and focus on what truly matters/

About OutSec Legal

At Outsec Legal, our services are designed to support legal professionals by providing reliable and high-quality legal transcription, allowing your practice to focus on clients and fee production. Whether your practice needs help with day-to-day transcription or support during busy periods, our pay-as-you-go option enables legal practices of all shapes and sizes to access support as and when they need it.

So What Are The Benefits?

Sole Practitioners/Barristers/Small Law Practices:

OutSec Legal is the perfect solution for sole practitioners, small law firms or barristers who need typing assistance on a pay-as-you-go basis, as it provides a cheaper alternative to employment.

Medium to Large Law Practices:

Medium to large law firms use OutSec Legal to:

Reduce secretarial staff (completely or partially). This reduces the need for expensive office space (or enables space to be utilised for more productive use/fee generation);
Allow fee earners to concentrate on chargeable hour targets, rather than typing emails or amending documents;
Provide an effective solution to enable your fee-earning staff to work remotely. Therefore providing further opportunities to reduce expensive office space or increase your fee earner headcount with less space. It enables flexible working and makes law firms more agile;
Provide a business continuity solution to enable law firms to access secretarial staff in times of absence.
Enable firms to upscale support as the firm grows or at times of high workloads, without the need for employing additional staff.