Ph.D., Communication/Relationship Coach, Etiquette Expert, Founder of the Academy of Social Competency.
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You wake up in the morning, ready to enjoy the day and get things done; you feel able to move mountains. Then something goes wrong. For unknown reasons, your confidence turns into fatigue. You get angry with yourself and try to push yourself to the limit, but nothing helps. Feeling tired and disappointed, all you want is to get rest. Familiar situation? This is a case where you may not have enough resources, which can happen for various reasons. A few likely causes of tiredness are physical exhaustion, mental stress and poor sleep. If that is not your situation, another key reason for tiredness can be the ineffective management of your resources.
Ineffectiveness may be due to the lack of understanding (ignorance, unwillingness, inability) of how to utilize your resources wisely, and this can lead to exhaustion and burnout. Effectiveness, on the other hand, is based on an optimal balance between efforts and results. In other words, it is the ability to achieve the intended results with the fewest resources. The ability to act effectively is rarely an innate skill, and for most individuals, it can be enhanced by psychological literacy, guidance and training.
Psychological literacy can be defined as having adequate knowledge of how to consciously treat oneself and others, understanding individual characteristics of people and building relationships based on them.
A main factor in an individual’s effectiveness is stress, and the statistics about stress are shocking. According to the American Psychological Association's 2021 Work and Well-being Survey of 1,501 U.S. adult workers, 79% of employees experienced negative impacts of work-related stress in the month before the survey, "including lack of interest, motivation, or energy (26%) and lack of effort at work (19%). Meanwhile, 36% reported cognitive weariness, 32% reported emotional exhaustion, and an astounding 44% reported physical fatigue—a 38% increase since 2019." These alarming numbers raise a reasonable question of how to manage your resources effectively in a stressful environment.
My particular interest is in two evidence-based theories that can help achieve higher results and save resources: the Zeigarnik effect theory and the reinforcement theory.
The Zeigarnik Effect
The Zeigarnik effect theory states that the brain more readily recalls an interrupted (unfinished) task than a completed one. This phenomenon was discovered by Bluma Zeigarnik in 1927 while observing a waiter who remembered the details of tables with undelivered and unpaid orders better than those tables that already received food and paid. She arranged a series of experiments and concluded that incomplete tasks create an underlying cognitive overload, even when a person moves on to other tasks. This overload results in greater mental tension and rehearsal to keep the task at the forefront of awareness.
Later research showed that the tension created by unfinished tasks persists to the point that it can cause distracting thoughts, lack of concentration, cognitive overload and poor performance on both old and new tasks. Unfinished tasks and thoughts about them can increase anxiety and lead to poor sleep, draining emotional resources.
Thus, managing resources effectively means not leaving tasks unfinished. For the brain, "to complete" means to "figure out," "fix" and "liberate from," maintaining so-called mental hygiene. One of the best strategies to make it happen is to make a list of tasks, break them down into steps, set deadlines and delegate what is possible. These actions can create a feeling that you are taking care of everything and that things are under control.
The Reinforcement Theory
The reinforcement theory was discovered by Burrhus Skinner through his operant conditioning experiments. In the 1930s, he studied the behavior of rats with regular and irregular rewards and found that in the first case, the reflex was the most difficult to destroy. He showed that reinforcement (negative or positive) increased the likelihood of a behavioral response. Negative reinforcement is an unpleasant outcome, while positive reinforcement is a pleasant consequence after a particular behavior that creates more interest and motivation to complete the task.
Positive reinforcement favorably affects the emotional sphere, generating additional energy, and is very important for the prevention of burnout. In this case, tasks are carried out with less effort, while overcoming reluctance requires extra volitional and mental resources. A natural reaction of any person is to avoid such actions subsequently.
The positive reinforcement theory is an excellent addition to the Zeigarnik effect. The completion of tasks should be supplemented with positive reinforcement; the more detailed the steps to achieve the task, the more possibilities of being rewarded. Gradually, such activity acquires a special meaning, and a "shift of the motive to the goal" can occur, followed by a person's desire to engage in an activity more and more.
How To Use These Theories To Prevent Burnout
In the same way, both theories can be applied to HR management and burnout prevention.
First, tasks should be formulated, achievable and, most importantly, understandable to every employee. Understanding a task contributes to motivation; otherwise, the employee may get the impression of doing unnecessary and meaningless work for the organization.
Second, any big task should be subdivided into steps and have performance criteria, helping employees to clearly understand how close they are to the goal, both qualitatively and quantitively. The criteria should be detailed with a minimum of general terms—quickly, in the best possible way, etc.
Third, the employee's performance should be monitored, not for control and macro-management, but for creating conditions for reducing the backlog of unfinished tasks, saving employees' resources and developing satisfaction.
Fourth, task performance should be positively reinforced. Some leaders consider remuneration a sufficient reward, however, the higher regularity of rewards can increase motivation. In this case, verbal gratitude and praise can work their magic as an affordable and very effective tool.
These seemingly simple and enduring tips can play a significant role in managing your resources in both personal and corporate formats. Being cost-effective and easy to implement, they can have far-reaching benefits including minimizing stress, preventing burnout and enhancing effectiveness.
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