Suppose you are expecting guests in the evening. You've tidied up the house, cleaned up scattered items, figured out how you'll entertain everyone, cooked food and bought drinks. Everything is ready, although there is an hour left before the arrival of the guests. It would seem that this is a great time to do something else, but, paradoxically, this time does not feel like free time for most people. We are already busy: we are having a party, even if there is an hour before it starts. This hour is already reserved by our consciousness, so we cannot use it for another task. Instead, we are busy waiting for guests to arrive. Some people in such a situation cannot even read a book and constantly look at their watches, wishing that the event would finally happen. This is the simplest demonstration of fixation from the book "Mental Traps" by Andre Kukla, published by Alpina.

The stakes increase when it comes to studying or working, because when preparing for exams or planning work tasks, an hour is a huge amount of time. As Maxim Dorofeev wrote in Jedi Techniques by the MIF publishing house, one small meeting scheduled for the middle of the day can easily ruin the whole day for some people, because neither before nor after it they are unable to do anything seriously. Before the meeting, the time needs to be filled with something, because the fact of the approaching event gets on your nerves (fixation effect), and after that it seems that it’s too late to do something useful, because it takes more time (uneconomical thinking, saying that serious things can only be done in a few hours and nothing else). As a result, the day is lost, although there is no logical explanation for this.

Some people, who rarely go on vacation or business trips, begin to prepare a few days in advance and postpone everything for the return period, because they are already “busy”, almost left. Others make long lists of tasks, hoping that it disciplines them, but in fact the excitement of not completing each of them accumulates until the anxiety and pressure it causes turns a person into a neurotic. All of these startling reactions arise from the way people perceive unfinished business.

Background

Man is not the only being who behaves so illogically when confronted with unfinished business. Animals have a so-called biased activity. Researchers have found that if an animal cannot start or complete an action, or if it has a conflict of motivations (for example, two hyena-like dogs collide at the border of their territories and do not know what to do - attack or run), the animals begin to engage in meaningless activities. substitution actions that are completely inappropriate for the situation, for example, they circle, wash themselves, dig holes, and so on. Hyena-like dogs in the described case begin to run and dig in the ground. Quite wittily and simply about displaced activity is described in the video blog “Everything is like animals”:

Procrastination: Hello from your inner hamster

In humans, the conflict between several important tasks or the fear of making a decision causes procrastination, which is familiar to everyone, that is, putting off things for later and / or replacing them with hard work on something else, like writing texts, reading social networks, cooking cupcakes, or training with heavy weights.

But inadequate behavior when it is impossible to complete the work begun is the effect of fixation. When you make an appointment, you mark it in your head as a task to be completed, sort of “starting” it, but you are not able to immediately complete it or even begin to complete it, which causes anxiety. You don't actually do anything, but the wait is seriously exhausting. The tension is especially strong if the task is very long in time - for example, you are treating your teeth, having scheduled a series of visits to the dentist, or working on tasks where their completion depends not only on you, but also on others (many can wait half a day for an answer, not able to do other things at this time).

The behavior of a person faced with unfinished tasks was studied by Kurt Lewin together with his team of researchers - Maria Ovsyankina, Bluma Zeigarnik, Vera Mahler and others. In the course of experiments, they found that a person has big problems with unfinished business, and even with absolutely meaningless ones. That is why, by the way, many project managers tend to complete the most hopeless and even unprofitable project instead of quitting it, because unfinished business creates internal dissatisfaction.

Levin's assistant and our compatriot Maria Ovsyankina conducted a simple experiment: she gave adults a boring and useless task - to put together a figure from cut parts. When the subject completed about half of the task, she interrupted him and asked him to do the second, unrelated to the previous one. At the same time, she covered the incompletely assembled figure with a newspaper. It turned out that after completing the second task, 86% of the subjects wanted to return to the first interrupted task and complete it, and the inability to do this increased the heart rate and had other psychophysiological effects. The researcher changed tasks, but the result remained the same. Kurt Lewin was extremely surprised by the data. “Why do adults, having started such a stupid job as folding figures, want to return to it? After all, there is no interest or encouragement!” he wondered. As a result, Levin concluded that people have a need to complete any, even meaningless, task. So numerous proverbs and folk wisdom that what has been started is worth finishing is not just a call to the virtue of labor, but also a consequence of our painful relationship with unfinished business.

In addition, Bluma Zeigarnik discovered what is now called the Zeigarnik effect. Her experiments showed that a person remembers unfinished business much better than completed ones. When we finish a task, we lose interest in it very quickly, while unfinished tasks remain in memory much longer. We not only suffer from unfinished business, but also are not able to get it out of our heads. This also explains, for example, why people finish reading bad books, although this does not give them any pleasure. You can break the system if you stop doing it. In his book Intention, Will, and Need, Levine gives this example: “Someone immersed themselves in a stupid newspaper novel, but did not read it to the end. This romance can haunt him for years."

A typical example of fixation on an unfinished business from Maxim Dorofeev's book

Unfinished business piles up, accumulates, clutters up our house, our work, our head. They are spinning, spinning, spinning in the head, taking up space, taking it instead of something new. They gnaw at our brain and prevent us from focusing on what needs to be done now.

Time itself is working against you. Once it all started with a small pile, but over time it grew and turned into a huge mountain.

These unfinished business seem difficult, and would be much easier if you dealt with them as soon as they first appeared. And now they have become a real problem.

What to do?

What if you complete them? To finish. Make room, both literally and figuratively. Clear your desktop of junk, free your head, free your time.

If only it were that easy! It takes time and effort to finish all these unfinished business. And they are not enough for new and important ones. The question is where to get the time and energy to finish the old ones and focus on the new ones?

Finishing unfinished business takes time and effort. And where can I get them if all the strength is sucked out of you by unfinished business?

Plus, some things are simply impossible to finish - they hung in limbo, and hang. And press, press, press...

And some again and again climb into our heads. Sometimes you do something important - and you catch yourself thinking about something completely different at the same time. Not important, but offensive! Or sad. It is clear that you need to put it out of your head, but it does not work!

Here's how to deal with it?

Need a good method - how to get things done

Such that:

• did not require too much time and effort. Simple.
• I would work for cases that are now impossible to complete.
• helped to get out of my head those things that climb into my head again and again, and do not turn off.

And there is such a way!

I use it - and it does a great job with a variety of things. Helps to get rid of the accumulated cases, papers and all that.

Finishing unfinished business method

Any unfinished business can be completed. Mentally put a tick -!

3 steps to complete the case:

1. The main thing is the result in one sentence.
2. Assess the pros and cons.
3. What's next - 3 options:

1) The case is over;
2) This stage is over, but the work itself needs to be continued;
3) This option does not work. We exchange for another or refuse altogether.

Now let's look at each point in more detail.

1. The main thing is the result in one sentence. Examples:

• It is done. It worked out great.
• thank god it's over. Fine! Throw away and forget like a bad dream.
• well advanced. We continue.
• I'm behind. We must add.
• no stone flower comes out! We need to change something.

2. Results - pros and cons.

• I usually write down 3 pros and cons. Sometimes it turns out more.
• Even if the case ended unsuccessfully, there are always things that you did well, or at least not badly. They should be written down so that they can be repeated in the future.
• And even if the case ended perfectly, there is always something that went wrong, or should have been done differently. Write them down so you don't repeat them in the future.

• All done, case closed. Let's go note.
• That's it, this stage is over. The next step is to get back to business in a week (or in a month, or in six months, etc.). Add to the calendar, and put a tick "done".
• This option doesn't work as expected. We change to another. We took into account the pros and cons, now we are turning around and moving in a new direction.

If it's done, then it's easy. But what if there is no end in sight and things are going wrong? Again, there may be several options.

• We just give up.
  - For example, postpone for a while. Return again - in three months (write in the calendar).
  - in three months it may turn out that the matter was resolved by itself. Or that everything is easier for you now. Or that you need to change course of action.
  - for now - it's over. You can get it out of your head. When the time comes, come back.
• Another option is that it doesn't work. But we must continue.
  You can change course. For example, start exercising every day for 2-3 hours. Change teacher. Or brainstorm and find the right solution.

In fact, there are a lot of options. What's important?

With the Completion of Unfinished Business method, you tell yourself and your brain that this is now finished. If necessary, I will return to him (in 12 days. Or in 4 hours). But now - this place is free.

So you free up space, time and energy for new things. And you can do them calmly and with concentration, without being distracted. Without thinking, “Oh, that’s not how I answered him! I should have said it like this!"

Here, for example, is my recording of the "End" of an unpleasant conversation

1) The main thing- you made it!

2) Outcome evaluation:
Pros:
- Done - calmly and without fuss.
- Instead of long disputes - everything was done in 1 day.
- Most of all, a clear wording helped - what exactly do you want, and what kind of compromise is possible.

Minuses:
1) You are overreacting.
2) At first I almost fell into hysterics. Only then did I begin to think and formulate.
3) The main disadvantage is that it was difficult for you to remain calm. What can you say? Train.

Similarly, the Completion method can be applied to any task that you need to complete. Decide on; to redesign the site, which was postponed for several months; resolve the issue with the insurance company; start or finish repairs; sort out the deposits of papers and finally put everything together important documents to one place, etc.

As you begin to complete those things that hang over your soul, you will notice something important:

• When you complete a few somewhat unfinished business, you will feel a huge relief. As if a place in life was freed up. For something new.
• It turns out that many things that have bothered you for a long time can be completed easier and easier than you thought. We were just afraid to start, and when we started, we just had to finish it.

The “Finishing Things” method does not require you to do too much. You can use it the way it is described. You can change it the way you like. Small matter:

Choose one unfinished business. Something simple and uncomplicated is best. Complete it. Then select the next one, and so on.

Try it and make room in your life for something new and interesting.

A PHOTO Getty Images

This widely known phenomenon in psychology was discovered in the 1920s by our compatriot Bluma Zeigarnik 1 . At that time, she was doing an internship in Berlin with the famous psychologist Kurt Lewin. Once, in a cafe, Levin drew her attention to a strange regularity. The waiter perfectly memorized all the details of the order, without even resorting to notes. But after completing it, he could no longer remember what exactly the previous visitors had ordered. This observation gave impetus to a serious experiment, during which Zeigarnik established (and described in her thesis) an important feature of our memory: we remember unfinished actions much better (about twice) than those that have been completed.
If the task was set and not completed, our brain continues to remind us of this, and we involuntarily return to it again and again with our thoughts. This effect manifests itself in our lives at every step.

Stress, multitasking and the Zeigarnik effect

Much has been written about the fact that multitasking interferes with the brain to work productively and provokes stress. This is directly related to the Zeigarnik effect. The to-do list that you keep in your mind is essentially a list of unfinished tasks that your brain cannot turn off and constantly reminds you of. As a result, you can not focus on the business that you are currently busy with. The best way to cope with this kind of stress is to “materialize” your mental plan by “uploading” it to paper, computer or phone. In this way, you kind of "convince" your brain that these tasks will be completed a little earlier or a little later, and it stops bombarding you with reminders of them.

We are driven by the expectation of reward

The Zeigarnik effect is manifested in the fact that the brain reminds us of the unfinished task. But it doesn't help us get started. Thinking about a task and rolling up your sleeves to act are two different things, although the former precedes the latter. And here we are primarily affected by another factor - the expectation of a reward.
Suppose you have two tasks: to read a textbook and watch a movie on the Internet. Periodically, the brain reminds you of these undone things. But which one you complete depends on what reward you expect from them and which one you prefer.
For most of us, it is preferable, that is, more enjoyable, to watch a movie than to sit over a textbook. And most likely, we will postpone the second task under various pretexts.
If the task before us is difficult enough and we procrastinate, not knowing where to approach it, the best way is to start at least with something. Preferably - from the lightest. The case has been started, so it will be finished.

Obsessive melodies and enticing series

Another manifestation of the Zeigarnik effect is a melody that sounds in our head, from which it is impossible to get rid of. Suppose we heard a certain song. But it was not possible to remember it in its entirety, only a small fragment scrolls endlessly in our memory.
Why is this "stuck" happening? For our brain, a song that we have not fully remembered is an action in progress. He repeats the fragment known to him in an attempt to "finish" the song in its entirety. But this is impossible, since it has not been deposited in memory.
If we listen to the song again and again and finally remember it all, the brain will consider the task completed and save us from obsession.
By the way, the Zeigarnik effect can also explain the dependence on TV shows that millions of people fall into. At the end of each episode, the screenwriter prescribes the so-called "hook": this is some kind of intriguing situation (mystery, threat, obstacle, etc.), the outcome of which can only be known from the next episode. The hero falls off the cliff... the heroine faints after receiving some letter... the helicopter the heroes are flying on starts to fall... And even if the series is not very captivating for the viewer, something pushes him to find out the continuation - in other words, he gets on this "hook". We need the action to complete!

Vladimir Kusakin - How to become more productive by managing your time

I just want to add a common phrase: “Time is money!”
Very often, these two things are the main barriers to achieving your goals. Interestingly, if you learn to manage time, you will immediately increase the ability to have more money. In general, money is scary. interesting topic, which we will consider in one of the following letters.

Have you ever seen a dog chasing a car and barking terribly selflessly. What will she do if she catches up?
I've been chasing things in my life sometimes, like that dog. But until I had a worthy goal, I had barriers with time and money.

Today I want to offer you one of the best articles on this topic by Klaus Hilgers. I myself have repeatedly resorted to the advice described in this article, and my life has changed dramatically.

Time management or HOW TO MAKE YOUR LIFE BETTER

Klaus Hilgers has over twenty years of experience as a management consultant. He is the president of his consulting company Epoch Consultants based in the USA. Mr. Hilgers uses effective time management programs to help managers learn how to cope with work overload, manage their time and stress levels better.

Unfinished business...
dangerous to your health!

In the bustle of everyday work, being under the pressure of urgent matters, we get used to unconsciously shifting responsibility for our lives to various circumstances - economic, personal, any other, but this approach leaves us absolutely no time for creativity.

Successful management of all aspects of life - family, career, finances, recreation, physical and spiritual aspects - is key point successful, productive life.

If you want to cope with the stress caused by the many problems that need to be addressed immediately, then the first thing you need to do is to look at the lifestyle you lead or the lifestyle you were "led" to. Many of us, instead of taking control of our own lives, trust circumstances to control it.

To understand how you can unlock your natural ability to manage your life, you need to define your purpose: “Why am I doing all this?”, “What is the purpose of my company?”, “What is the purpose of my position?”, “What is the purpose of my relationship with ______(name)?". Your vision might be to "put kids on their feet" or "be a successful artist, musician, engineer, salesman, etc."

Answer these quiz questions to analyze your lifestyle:

1. Are your pockets full of papers on which you write down what needs to be done?
2. Do you find it hard to focus on getting the job done because you're thinking about other things to get done?
3. Are you often behind schedule and trying to catch up?
4. Have you started a lot of new projects but don't finish them?
5. When you are doing something, are you constantly interrupted, and does this affect the speed of your work?
6. Do you often remember that you didn't do something important at the moment when it's too late?
7. Do you come home feeling like you didn't have time to do anything at work, you feel very tired and the only thing you can do is watch TV?
8. Do you find yourself unable to make time for exercise, relaxation, or even simple entertainment?

If you answered "YES" to even one question, it means that you are not managing your life very well. The question is… “Who is in control of your life?” Do you manage your time, or do circumstances dictate your daily routine?

Right now, you might be thinking, “I don’t have time to plan. I'm so busy coping and settling the various situations in my life that I just don't have time to plan. I haven't even written my goals for the current year, and it's already March. I know I need to write them, but I don't think it will ever happen."

Why does such a situation arise? A serious problem that prevents you from completing things is not finishing what has been started. A lot of people, instead of getting things done, tend to accumulate unfinished cycles, known as 'backlogs and backlogs'. And that creates stress.

Completing a task is essentially different from just stopping working on it. When something is “completed”, it exists “totally, in its entirety”, “it has no missing parts”, it is “complete and perfect” – Webster’s New World Dictionary.

When a task is completed, you can "get it out of your head" - you no longer keep it in your memory. You feel content. You are ready to start the next business, you are ready to create. You feel good!

Many of us instead of "completed work" surround ourselves with "unfinished business". “I don’t care if there is a mistake here, I won’t redo it,” or “I’ll transfer this work somewhere else ... what's the difference.” In fact, there is nothing surprising in such emotions: the completion of the work begun is the most difficult task. The last percent of work is usually harder to complete than the previous ninety-nine percent. We resist finishing things and let them remain unfinished. Unfinished tasks become our old friends... good old... "death" friends.

Perhaps now you are thinking: “But I don’t have time to completely complete things!”. Okay, let's look at some of the consequences of a work in progress.

UNFINISHED WORK DEALS A DEATH BOW TO:

• your time
• Your attention
• your energy
• your health

See what happens if you only complete ninety percent of the work, or just leave something unfinished, or do work only to get rid of it:

1. The next morning, this work reappears on your desk for corrections or additions, so you actually have to do it twice.
2. In production, the number of marriages is increasing.
3. Even if you have nothing to complain about, you yourself do not feel satisfied with this work.
4. Due to the fact that the memory is cluttered with many unfinished tasks that you need to remember, you cannot concentrate on the current work.
5. You lack energy.
6. You find it difficult to concentrate.
7. You feel like you are wasting a lot of time.
8. You feel tired and irritable.
9. You perceive any situation as a source of additional stress.
10. It becomes increasingly difficult for you to manage because you are in a state of constant stress (this is accompanied by various physical manifestations: poor digestion, headaches, nervousness, etc.).

To unfinished business relate:

• Backlog of work.
• Written and oral communication not handled properly.

Sounds bad enough, doesn't it? Can you really afford not to finish things, provided that when you finish work, you get:

1. Satisfaction.
2. More energy.
3. Increasing the speed of work (The more you do, the more you can do! Everything speeds up!).
4. The ability to create, to start something new.

The end is always the beginning of something new. Completion releases energy and attention, which significantly changes how you perceive yourself and your life.

“How can I start?”, You will be surprised, “I am mired in problems!”, “I can’t do everything at once!”.

This is true, but you don't have to do everything at once. There are several principles of time management.

In his article "How to Get the Job Done," L. Ron Hubbard gave this advice:
“Do it NOW.
One of better ways cutting your work in half is not doing it twice.”
Have you ever picked up a document, looked at it and put it aside, and then, later, returned to it again? This is double work.

Make a list of unfinished business, set due dates, and complete them.

Organize your work: designate a place for your belongings and always return them to their place.

Use a filing system so you can easily find what you need.

Use electronic calendars and keep track of tasks.

Then formulate goals for yourself in various areas and plan the steps to achieve these goals. Set goals for:

1. Finance
2. careers
3. health
4. Physical Improvements
5. Nutrition Improvements
6. Management under stress
7. Relationships with other people

When you make weekly and daily plans in accordance with your priority goals, when you achieve these goals, you will experience satisfaction; it will be your reward and your motivation to complete the following tasks. Set goals for yourself - for the year, for the month, for the week, for the day, as well as any long-term goals. Prioritize them, plan the steps that will lead to achieving those goals, and then complete each step. When drawing up your plan, be sure to allow time for handling unforeseen circumstances.

The next step to better managing your time (it's the biggest and most important one) is to do everything you do carefully and to completion until you're completely satisfied with what you've done.
Use a personal time management system (time management) that may be on your computer. The system should include sections for planning goals, for making a plan for the week and for the day, calendars of cases for the month, a section for finances, a section for notes, projects, addresses, etc.

To help you better manage your time, I want to rephrase all of the above in the form of the following recommendations:

1. Define your goals and prioritize them.
2. Plan regularly for the week.
3. Complete tasks according to priorities.
4. Ask yourself the question: “How can I use my time right now the best way? and do just that.
5. "If you don't need something, get rid of it." Studies show that eighty percent of papers placed in folders are never reviewed. Therefore, if you throw them away, then nothing bad will happen.
6. Write down what you need to do, don't keep it all in your head. You will feel better.
7. It is perfectly normal if you ask those with whom you communicate to write you requests or tasks for e-mail. In this case, you will not forget to complete them.
8. Organize good system information storage.
9. Complete the job.
10. Do the work now.

Start managing your life using the principles we discussed in this article, and you will see how your life will become more productive, more rational and bring you much more pleasure. Start right now!

The Lord in one of his parables says: Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you much better than them? And who among you, by taking care, can add even one cubit to his stature? (Matt: 26-28).
I have already written about the fact that each biblical parable has different levels of understanding. Exist different interpretations this parable, as well as all other parables. But for us, as always, it is important to consider precisely psychological aspect. What is meant in this case? Everything is pretty simple. The Lord calls us to free ourselves from the state of anxiety, which on the external level manifests itself as much concern. In other words, He calls us to always be in the here and now. What is this amazing state and how is it useful? In this state, a person is whole. He is present with all his being in the situation that is given to him. He lives it in its entirety. And it is not so important what kind of character the event is. It can be a moment of direct communication with another person. Or it is a state of involvement in any activity, creative work. Perhaps this is thinking about a task, finding a solution to it, or, for example, planning for tomorrow. Such an event (coexistence - joint existence) can also be the process of our preparation for confession, connected with the consideration of our past. This state is characterized by our full presence, coexistence, communion with ourselves, or, in the case of prayer, communion with God... At first glance, all these events are completely different in their outward manifestation. They are united precisely by the internal orientation, focus on the process, the maximum involvement of a person in what he is currently doing. This is a state that is usually referred to as here and now.
In fact, achieving this state of mind is not as easy as it might seem. Our consciousness works all the time, like a computer running several programs at the same time. Some program is on the monitor screen, and several programs can run in the background.
Many of us have experienced a feeling of inner fatigue, inertia. Sometimes these states take possession of us at the most inopportune moment. It seems that now is a convenient time to do something necessary and the circumstances for this are developing in a favorable way, but, unfortunately, the forces are leaving somewhere, and I don’t want to do anything. The feeling is that everyday problems gradually accumulate and fall on the shoulders of a heavy unbearable burden.
Why is this happening? Let's return to the topic of gestalt closure. The last article talked about emotional pain, about unlived relationships. But, the psychological term, meaning the closure of the gestalt, is much broader. That is why unfinished business is a topic that also requires close attention. It is they, according to psychologists, that influence a person in a similar way, not allowing him to stay in a state of here and now. And no matter how much we force ourselves, no matter how much willpower we put in to be in this state, we will not succeed until we devote enough time to unfinished business. Otherwise, we will simply “slow down” all the time, following the example of a computer. (You have probably noticed that several applications running at the same time cause the computer to slow down). If you load it to the maximum, then it will completely freeze.

Finishing pending divisions is freeing up energy in order to live your life here and now.

In the article "PLEASE YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER AND WAIT FOR YOUR FATE" talked about the need to clear your outer space of rubbish and that putting things in order in the apartment leads to positive changes in life. Yes it is. But it is equally important to pay attention to your inner space at the same time.
And now we are talking about how to put your inner space in order. Any incomplete gestalt, including in the form of an action not completed, an unfulfilled need, an intention not brought to a result, is characterized by the fact that it takes energy. It happens like this: consciously or not, our consciousness, as it were, all the time plays inside ourselves those situations in which things were not completed, events are recalled where emotions were not expressed ... And this is not accidental. The human soul strives to regain once lost integrity. That is why we are possessed by both guilt and stress. We are oppressed by the realization that we planned something, perhaps even started to do it, but did not finish ... And there is a feeling of self-doubt, and what is called low self-esteem ... Naturally, self-respect also falls.
Psychologists are well aware of the so-called "Zeigarnik effect". The essence of this discovery is that if the action is interrupted (incomplete), while a certain level of emotional stress associated with the lack of discharge due to incompleteness, contributes to the preservation of this action in memory.
The “Zeigarnik effect” manifests itself as follows: we can quickly forget even our significant success, which we have been striving for for a long time, but we will long and painfully return in our memories and play in our heads the situation when we did not behave as we would like, did not complete begun, failed. If we talk about the spiritual component of this psychological feature, it is clear that the root lies in our proud ego. It is thanks to him that we devalue success (we compare our achievements with the achievements of others), we are not able to humbly hold the Gifts that the Lord gives us, we complain and feel sorry for ourselves, we cannot come to terms with our past ...
What to do? It is clear that in order for the problem to be solved on a spiritual level, repentance, confession and communion are necessary.
But what can we do on a psychological level?
We all have those unfinished gestalts, unfinished business. The first thing to do is to turn around to face this problem. We will solve this problem in order. For this you should:
1. Make a list of all interrupted or simply postponed cases. Separately, you should deal with interrupted cases and separately with pending ones.
2. Think of everything you ever planned to do. It can be large projects, and small tasks, calls, meetings, ordinary routine matters. Everything that worries us and to which so far "have not reached the hands."
3. If you pay enough attention to this, the list can turn out to be quite impressive. This is good.
4. Next, opposite each important thing that we planned to do, but did not, write actions (steps). Sometimes it is enough to outline the very first step that leads us to the execution of the task; sometimes these steps need to be spelled out in more detail. It may be several items. For example, for a long time I was going to start doing a set of physical exercises at home, and not just doing it in a fitness center. What will be the first steps for me?
Find a set of exercises that interests me on the Internet
Display this video clip from the laptop to the TV screen
Lay out an exercise mat...
That's all... Nothing else is required... I can start my studies. It remains only to include it in your daily routine in such a way that classes are systematic. Everything is really simple. But, why could I not start doing this for several months? Why did I avoid and procrastinate all the time? It is clear that avoidance led to the fact that dissatisfaction with oneself accumulated in the soul. And I was already ready to persuade myself that it was probably beyond my power to force myself to do it, that it was time to come to terms with being overweight and feeling unwell ...
By doing so, the problem of procrastination is simultaneously solved. (There was also an article about this). After all, while the steps were not detailed, there was a feeling of fear that the task that I had to solve was too complex and global ...
Studies show that the things we write down are much more likely to be done than the things we keep in our heads.

It must be remembered that any accomplishment, even the smallest thing, strengthens our motivation to continue to work on ourselves further.

· A special case when some cases "freeze" in our list. And passes long time, but we never got around to it. Perhaps you should ask yourself the question - is it really worth doing this? Is it really worth finishing what you started?
In this case, it is necessary to admit to yourself that there is no point in continuing, that the case (or task) has lost its relevance. It is necessary to make a conscious decision - I refuse to comply. And this will also be one of the ways to complete the gestalt.
· By the way, as well as the fact that we break complex tasks into stages. And each stage that leads us to an intermediate result is a kind of completed gestalt.
· It is important to remember that when we finish something, we start something else. The circumstances of life are such that the Lord will always set new tasks before us.

If we want to be in a resource state, if we want to build our life in such a way that the state here and now becomes more of a norm for us than a rare experience, then we must remember not to drag unclosed gestalts with us. After all, all the emotional tails associated with unfinished situations take away our mental energy.
To clear the inner space, to get rid of the neurotic feeling of guilt, to put an end to the solution of once planned tasks - this is all within our power.