Activities that have a clear starting, halfway and finishing point

Human beings have a certain biological craving for this completeness in many areas. Our brains are wired to seek completion and the pleasure it brings.

That’s deeply psychologically rewarding. Harvard conducted a study on this facet of human motivation, showing that people who started their workdays completing a bunch of short tasks first were the most satisfied with their job, felt the highest level of motivation, and had accomplished the most throughout the week.

Sadly, life doesn’t always satisfy our impulse to think in terms of beginnings, middles and endings. Human existence is not one hundred page screenplay where the inciting incident happens in the opening scene, the big plot twist happens at the fifty minute mark, and the narrative clock starts ticking until the credits roll.

Oftentimes life feels more like a dream, where we don’t remember the beginning, we just sort of turn up in the middle of what’s going on.

And that’s fine. Chaos is expected. We can’t be so naive to assume that everything we experience will have clean and clear delineations.

However, for the sake of our own sanities, we should regularly participate in activities that have a clear starting, halfway and finishing point. We can’t merely live in one long middle, otherwise we’re going to feel agitated and dissatisfied all the time. Our brains need that sense of accomplishment and closure through contained experiences to serve as anchors amidst the uncertain of life.

Control may be an illusion, but establishing a real sense of structure is something we can take responsibility for to preserve our wellbeing.

I hate to blame the pandemic for yet another negative trend in human behavior, but this one is spot on. Covid was a sudden and unprecedented disruption that locked us all into an extended period of uncertainty.

For three years, there was no definitive end in sight. Everything was postponed or cancelled, and the sense of completion that came from that experience was lost.

It’s like all of us were stuck in one long middle. It’s no wonder depression was at a record high. What’s more, the absence of clear boundaries between work and personal time drove us all batshit crazy. Without a clear distinction between when one phase ends and another began, life was just middle, middle, middle.

I noticed this pattern within the first few months of lockdown, and I remember thinking to myself, wow, this sucks, and I better get out in front of it before it swallows me whole. That’s exactly why I over corrected with projects and hobbies and activities that marked accomplishments and created moments of closure.

In my pandemic experience, I set a schedule that involved lots of doable, satisfying endeavors that connected me with myself, with others and with the world. In the absence of traditional milestones, I knew I had to do whatever I could to check the boxes of beginning, middle and end.

And it really worked. I had plenty of moments of loneliness and frustration and restlessness. But I still made it out alive, psychologically speaking.

What would mark accomplishments and create moments of closure for you this week?