The IKEA Effect

I have a complicated relationship with IKEA.

I love how affordable their products are and they’re maddening to assemble. I’m fairly handy and not particularly prone to anger, but I have more than once yelled at the instruction manual for being unnecessarily convoluted. If you’ve ever purchased an IKEA product, you can probably relate.

Psychological research has actually demonstrated a cognitive bias that has been coined “The IKEA Effect” based on this complex relationship consumers have with IKEA products.

According to a Harvard-based study, the IKEA effect basically says that we tend to place a higher value on that which we create (be it assembling a piece of IKEA furniture, folding origami, or completing a Lego set – all examples of which were studied in this research).

This makes sense to me.

I feel a sense of ownership when I create or make or even just assemble something.

The problem, though, is that I so often feel ownership over things I need to let go. I think that because I gave it time or attention or energy I need to care about and invest in it forever.

The truth is that I’ve spent a lot of time on things that ran their course and needed to be handed over to another. I’m no longer the right person to “own” it. It was the right investment for a season but it’s not the right investment now.

I’ve also spent a lot of time on things that were never worth my time, attention, or energy, and just needed to die.

Here’s the point.

Just because you labored on something doesn’t mean it’s worth loving.

It might be.

But it might not be.

Don’t succumb to the IKEA effect. Don’t convince yourself that a relatively cheap piece of furniture is more value because you dedicated a disproportionate amount of time to assembling it.

Don’t hold onto something just because you’ve given it your time, attention, and energy. It may be time to let go.

More Practical

I am a big fan of the sitcom Modern Family.

Phil Dunphy is a fun-loving father that cares about his family more than anything. He loves them and sacrifices for them at every turn.

Then, one day, he goes with his friend Andre to a car dealership. The two admire a sleek black sports car.

Phil is just pining after this car. He wants it so badly. But he knows it’s not practical. He has three children. It doesn’t make sense.

Andre says to him, “You never hear a person on their deathbed saying, ‘I wish I’d been more practical.’”

It probably wasn’t wise for Phil to buy a sports car when he still had children at home.

But I think Andre has a point.

I’m all for being practical. I’m all for being productive. I’m all for striving to be and do more.

But the things that matter most – the things that bring color and variety to life – aren’t always practical.

I’m learning to play the mandolin. It’s not even a little bit practical. I have no intention of joining a bluegrass band. But it’s something I’ve always wanted to learn, so I am – and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.

I am rereading the Chronicles of Narnia for the seventh time. I read a couple of chapters every night before I go to bed. I know how every story ends but I still love reading them as much as I did the first time.

I cut my workday short every couple of weeks to get an early dinner with my parents. I talk to my brothers on the phone regularly. I spend a lot of time doing puzzles and coloring and playing Legos with my nieces and nephews. There’s nothing obviously practical about our time together. We’re not producing anything. But I wouldn’t trade those moments with any of them for the world.

I’m not peddling a “just do what makes you happy” bill of goods.

I’m just saying that practicality is a good servant but a terrible god.

Practicality should serve us in becoming more of who God created us to be.

But if we prize it above all else it will almost certainly make us less of who we were created to be.

The Curse of Zeigarnik

There is a concept in psychological research known as the Zeigarnik Effect. The basic idea is that people have a drive to complete tasks rather than leave them unfinished. It’s why loyalty cards are effective. It’s why we loathe having an inbox full of unread emails. It’s why we feel a sense of accomplishment when we check something off our to-do lists. It’s why we don’t like to be interrupted when we’re in the middle of something.

The Zeigarnik Effect is key to being a functional and productive person. Can you imagine how little we would accomplish without this drive to finish things? We would probably never take out the garbage, remember to go grocery shopping, or bother with any of the less exciting tasks necessary to living as a properly socialized adult.

However, this blessing can quickly become a curse.

You see, the Zeigarnik Effect impacts what we do, but can also blind us who we are – and who we are becoming.

We can easily become more focused on productivity than people, more concerned with results than relationships, and more taken by completion than character.

To put what we do ahead of what we are is to put the cart before the horse. What we do ought to flow out of who we are, not the other way around.

Maybe we need fewer to-do lists. Maybe we need a to-be list. Maybe we need to spend less time on tasks – important though they may be – and spend more time on cultivating generosity, walking in faithfulness, exercising patience and making peace with others.

Don’t fall victim to the curse of Zeigarnik. Resist the urge to measure your life by your productivity. Resolve to spend time on who you are.