Cognitive closure, reduced effectiveness Relying solely on punching a clock not only diverts the motivation to act, but also reduces the effectiveness of the action. This stems from another important psychological mechanism -- the need for cognitive closure. The so-called need for cognitive closure means that when people face a vague problem, they have the desire to find a clear answer to it. For example, in ancient times, people did not know why it rained, so the problem of rain was not closed, which would make people very uncomfortable. Therefore, the ancients used the thunder Lord, the electric mother and the dragon King to explain the cause of rain.

Although these theories had no basis, they met the need of cognitive closure. It is the same to extend this concept to behavior: if a task is not completed, it is always in the mind, looking forward to the end; Once it's done, the incentive to do it immediately goes to zero. For example, when your boss tells you to do something, you can't stop thinking about it until it's done.

Your mind is full of bits and pieces about it, but as soon as your boss says it's okay, it's over. Once the task is closed, the brain clears the occupied memory space, the event quickly fades from the mind and the motivation to act disappears. We have this mentality because the human brain likes certainty, not the unknown or uncertainty. The clocking activity has its own task mentality. Every time people punch a clocking activity, they have to face a task closure demand, which is not serious at the beginning, but once the motivation is transferred, people's psychology will change. For example, if you need to punch in 20 words every day, if you don't have time today, but in order to punch in, you may scan it several times, tell yourself that you have learned it and let the task close first, otherwise you will always think about it and feel uncomfortable. On the other hand, if you have plenty of time today and you finish the task of memorizing 20 words early in the morning, the task closes as soon as you clock out. After that, your motivation decreases to zero and you don't want to explore any more. This is the nature of the clock-in mentality: if you can't learn, fake it; You got it. Stop it now. Therefore, learning simply with the task mentality of punching the clock will rarely lead to strong initiative. After all, driven by the task mentality, people focus on the completion of the task, and have no greater enthusiasm for the task itself. Mission mentality can be very useful in some areas, such as the military. Soldiers must have a strong sense of mission, but in the area of personal learning and growth, mission mentality may not be desirable. For example, when running, you always think about how much time is left to finish, when reading, you always think about how many pages are left to finish, when memorizing words, you always think about how many pages are left to finish... Such a state of mind distracts attention and makes it difficult to fully immerse yourself in the object and appreciate its significance and enjoyment. We can't feel the smoothness of body, mind, hands and feet when running, can't deeply understand the thinking and emotion of the characters in the book, can't experience the deep correlation between words... No matter what time, there seemed to be a voice behind him constantly urging: hurry, hurry, hurry, get it done! It is difficult for modern people to get happiness, mostly because of this fast pace and urgency, but in this state, life is so boring, it can not let us enjoy the process, it will only make the body and mind tension, anxiety, numbness and division. In "A Brief History of Today," Yuval Harali thinks deeply about the meaning of human existence, but when it comes to the meaning of life, he offers this insight: What separates me from the world is the sense of the body. In other words, the essential meaning of individual life lies in the unity of mind and body to realize the real process of life, which includes Zen, philosophy and science. At least in learning, unity of mind and body and extreme concentration are extremely important preconditions. Only in this state can people receive fine and strong positive feedback from learning activities. However, task mentality destroys the state of physical and mental unity, and this bad experience will intensify people's aversion to learning activities, forming a vicious circle. At this point, you may wish you could reduce your task mentality so as not to affect your focus and feelings, but some things in the world are so weird that you can't get them by going straight for them. Like sleep, the more you remind yourself to fall asleep, the less you will be able to fall asleep, but if you relax your body, you may be able to fall asleep. For example, focus. The more you remind yourself to focus, the easier it is for you to be distracted. But if you are thinking and experiencing things with your whole heart, you will be able to focus. Take beauty, for example. The more you put effort into dressing up and showing it, the easier it is for people to feel deliberate, but if you quietly focus on one thing, the real beauty will emerge. As the saying goes, "great beauty is not self-aware." I think the way to break the task mentality is just to concentrate on the task at hand.