Using cliffhangers as productivity tools

One of the biggest mental blocks we face when starting something new is surprisingly simple: we don’t know what the first step is.

When that happens, the mind stalls. On the surface, it looks like procrastination. We tell ourselves we’re too busy, too distracted, too tired, or not motivated enough.

But often the real problem is much simpler.

We just don’t know how to begin.

Writers know this feeling well. So much so that it has its own name: writer’s block. Imagine staring at a blank page, knowing you want to write but feeling completely stuck.

Even great writers struggled with this. Ernest Hemingway had a simple trick for dealing with it.

Instead of finishing a section before stopping, he would leave a sentence unfinished at the end of the day. When he returned the next morning, he didn’t have to face a blank page. He simply continued the sentence he had already started.

Finishing a thought is much easier than starting one from scratch.

The psychology behind it

Our minds dislike unfinished business.

Uncompleted tasks create what psychologists call “open loops.” Think of them like open browser tabs in your brain. They quietly sit there, consuming attention, waiting to be closed.

This phenomenon was first studied by Bluma Zeigarnik in the 1920s.

She noticed something curious while sitting in a cafe. Waiters seemed to remember unpaid orders very well, but once the bill was settled, they quickly forgot the details.

Intrigued, she ran experiments where participants were given a series of tasks like puzzles and math problems. Some tasks were completed. Others were deliberately interrupted.

Later, participants remembered the unfinished tasks much better than the completed ones.

This became known as the Zeigarnik effect: unfinished tasks stay active in our memory because the mind seeks closure.

Storytellers have used this trick for decades. TV shows and novels often end episodes or chapters with cliffhangers precisely because unresolved tension keeps us coming back.

For a long time, I thought of cliffhangers only as something to resist. A clever trick used by Netflix or thriller writers to keep us hooked.

Recently, I started using them as leverage in my own work.

Turning cliffhangers into a productivity tool

When you know exactly what needs to be done next, starting becomes much easier.

It’s easier to continue editing a draft than to begin writing a new one.

It’s easier to continue testing a piece of code you just wrote than to open a blank file and start from scratch.

When I write, I often jot down raw thoughts about an idea and leave them there. I call this Draft 0.

Sometimes I come back the next day. Sometimes two or three days later. During that time, my mind has quietly been processing the idea in the background. I notice examples in conversations, things I read, or situations during the day.

When I return to the draft, the page is no longer empty. My brain has already been working on it.

The same thing happens when I’m building a product.

I’m not a programmer, but I use ChatGPT to help generate code. Often, I’ll ask it to write a function for a specific feature. When the code appears, the natural temptation is to test it immediately.

Instead, I sometimes leave it there.

The unfinished step creates a small pull in my mind: I want to see if this works. That tension makes it far more likely that I’ll return to the task soon instead of letting it sit untouched for days.

This trick has helped me balance two projects I’m working on. One of them was constantly getting ignored. I realized why: I kept finishing a task neatly before stopping. That gave my mind closure.

Recently, I changed the pattern.

I worked on it for an hour, made good progress, and deliberately stopped right when I knew exactly what the next step was.

Now the task feels unfinished. And my mind keeps nudging me back to it.

My teenager’s clever workaround

Interestingly, my 17-year-old uses the same psychology in reverse.

When watching a suspenseful series, she never stops at the end of an episode. That’s exactly where the biggest cliffhanger sits.

Instead, she stops in the middle of an episode, when the suspense is relatively low.

Her total viewing time is still about one episode. But it runs from the middle of one episode to the middle of the next.

The rest of us in the family aren’t that disciplined. We stop exactly when the episode ends. And that’s when the mystery is at its peak.

Hours later, someone will suddenly say, “I think I figured out who the killer is.”

Our minds keep working on the puzzle long after the screen goes dark.

Of course, that’s exactly what streaming platforms want.

A word of caution

Cliffhangers create mental tension. That’s their power.

Used wisely, they pull you back to important work.

Used poorly, they can follow you into bed while you’re trying to sleep, replaying bugs in your code or unfinished emails.

The key is balance. Leave yourself a clear next step, not an unresolved stress loop.

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Try this experiment to lure your mind back to work.

Pause a project you’re working on right before the next step. Leave the thread hanging. Your mind will want to come back and…😉