OK folks a little experiment in memetics - have you heard about the Zeigarnick Effect recently? If you haven't then I would guarantee that you will have come across it by the end of the year at the very least if not by the end of September.
So what makes me so sure? Well in the various planning circles that I frequent - certain constructs seem to catch on faster than others - true memetics in action if you will - and I am quite convinced that this is one of those constructs that has enormous gravity. It is based on the theory that people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed ones.
While still being hotly debated, The Zeigarnik Effect, is used in a variety of contexts. It states that if you are half way through learning something and are then interrupted in what you are doing, you will remember what you were doing better than if you had completed whatever the learning task was. It seems like a plausible thought perhaps because we can all say - oh yes that's right that happens to me all the time, but it took one person to ground this theory.
Bluma Zeigarnik first discovered this effect in the 1920's while sipping coffee in a coffee shop. She noted that a waiter she was observing was able to recall endless numbers of orders unless he had completed them. Perhaps she would have made a great planner!
Ultimately she proved in a paper (1927) that unfinished tasks were remembered approximately twice as well as completed tasks - no mean feat bearing in mind this was based on a loose insight. Nowadays it is being talked about by my email buddy Ben Mack (serious thinker and downright dangerously wonderful author) and a whole host of others - I have come across it twice in 3 weeks so there is something happening here - look out for it.