WHY YOU LOOSE MOTIVATION HALFWAY THROUGH A TASK

Research participants who were assigned to proof-read nine essays found an average of 0.122 typos per second at first, then just 0.092 per second at the halfway point of the experiment, then 0.124 near the end, revealing a U-shaped, “stuck in the middle” pattern of motivation over the course of a task. At the beginning of a chore, people tend to be motivated by their progress in relation to the starting point; at the end, they are spurred on by their proximity to the end point. In the middle, their motivation flags because their attention shifts from the starting point to the end point.

Harvard business review
www.researchclue.com