Using Zeigarnik Effect in Presentation

By Published On: September 17th, 2019Categories: Presentation Skils, Presentation Tips
Using Zeigarnik Effect in Presentation

The Zeigarnik Effect Experiment

Being a presenter or business professional, you might have dreamt of drafting a top-notch presentation that gets appreciated by your audience. You might have even have worked with out-of-box ideas to gain maximum outcome of it. But your skills or ideas has some limitations. Going further beyond your imagination and skills can really blunder your presentation. You need strategic plans or techniques which can act add-ons for your ideas. It should elevate your ideas, so you hunt the desired goal. If you are the one who wants to intrigue the audience with a killer presentation, then you should be familiar with the mysterious trick or tool called Zeigarnik Effect.

The Zeigarnik Effect

Zeigarnik effect named after Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik. The phenomena of the Zeigarnik effect was reported in the 1920s by Bluma Zeigarnik while working with Kurt Lewin. The phenomena state that people tend to remember uncompleted or interrupted task better than the completed ones. Individuals are more motivated in completing an interrupted task rather than starting new once. The Zeigarnik effect has interesting implications on the way human mind tendency works.

Before we conclude how Zeigarnik effects can be used for drafting presentation. Here’s how it got introduced. In Vienna, while psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik & Kurt Lewin were sipping coffee observed that. The waiter tends to remember the order when it’s in the process of being served.

But gets evaporated after completion. Finally, it was concluded that interrupted or incomplete tasks get remembered better than completed once as it’s the human brain’s tendency to close the loop of the task that has been set.

Using-Zeigarnik-Effect-in-presentation

Using the Zeigarnik Effect for Presentation

Now a day’s professionals walk extra miles to draft appealing presentation. They don’t leave any stones unturned to win the attention of audiences. Zeigarnik effect can be applied in a presentation in several ways to make it more compelling. For such purposes, you not only have to welcome an audience but also needs to breakdown your task into a series to maximize productivity and engagement.

  • Dividing your Project into Chunks: In order to enhance productivity, you may opt time management technique like Pomodoro technique. In which tasks are divided into chunks or Pomodoro and a specific time is assigned to complete the task. Thus, you can simplify your entire project in several segments or Pomodoro. This techniques aids in maintaining productivity. Meanwhile, in break time you can rejuvenate yourself for next Pomodoro.
  • Moving Q&A Sessions in between or at the end of the presentation: Q&A sessions are really effective to curate a compelling presentation. It elevates your audience attention over the topic. Asking questionnaires in between presentation lets you gauge the interest of the audience and lets the audience to stay glued over the presentation context. Questionnaire sessions at the end of your presentation let you cement points in the mind of your audience and better remember your arguments.
  • Keeping Notes to counter interruptions: Not everyone is perfect enough in maintaining the flow in presentation after getting interrupted. If you get anxious, seeing the large audience. It can really be devasting. You can opt for keeping notes, mental notes which enables you to remind you from where you started and what you want next.
  • Revising Your Presentation: You may not be a pro player of presentation. You should be sure you are able to anticipate interruptions. You need to revise your presentation among your friends, colleague to improvise the potential pitfalls and continuity on the day of presentation.
  • Taking a Short Break in Between:If you are working on a lengthy project or presentation. Taking a break where you likely to stop would definitely work for you. The anxiety levels drop down, and you are likely to accomplish your task efficiently than without stopping.
Using Zeigarnik Effect

Zeigarnik Effect: In psychology, the Zeigarnik effect states that people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks.

  • Give Your Audience an Exclusive Teasers: In any communication with your audience, such as presentations, speech. Welcome your audience with striking teasers, which makes people hooked up with your messages. For example, highlight your message like, how to double your money? How to be successful? This type of message binds the audience until they know how things end.
  • Ending a Day with Incomplete Tasks: If you are a business professional, don’t end your day with a completed task. Doing so you have to re-motivate yourself for the next day and need to start from scratch. This lets you to start a day with a sense of having achieved something.
  • Eliminating Disturbances: One of the best ways to stop getting anxious due to frequent interruptions while delivering a presentation is to stop getting worried about them. Stressing out won’t help you even can worsen the situation. Many presenters forget crucial information’s while presentation and cover it up using notes or taking a short break and getting back with an apology.
Using Zeigarnik Effect in presentation

If worked precisely with PowerPoint presentations, the Zeigarnik Effect can really create wonders. Zeigarnik effect not only improvises your presentation skills assists you in compelling your audience to pay attention to the topic. Zeigarnik effects enable you to respond to queries effectively.