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About this quote

What does it mean?
Unfinished tasks create a heavier mental burden than completed work. The weariness comes from the open loop of effort not yet realized.
In plain terms
You feel more tired from what you haven't done than from what you have done.
What can you take from it?
Unfinished work drains energy more than completed work.

Where it applies

  • workplace
  • study
  • project management

Putting it to work

  • finish tasks
  • prioritize work
  • close open loops

Questions to consider

  • Why do unfinished tasks haunt us?
  • How do we manage work fatigue?

Another view

Rest is necessary and not every task must be finished immediately.

More from Eric Hoffer

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  2. It is the individual only who is timeless. Societies, cultures, and civilizations - past and present - are often incomprehensible to outsiders, but the individ…

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  3. To the excessively fearful the chief characteristic of power is its arbitrariness. Man had to gain enormously in confidence before he could conceive an all-pow…

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