Most people will usually do what is easy to do first, and then do something that is more difficult to deal with when they are at work. However, a Harvard Business School study published in July showed that giving priority to simple tasks could improve efficiency in a short time, but it might not be of great benefit for long-term work. The researchers selected two hospitals, and analyzed 43000patients. They found that when the waiting room was full of patients, doctors would receive patients who were easy to handle. At first, he worked efficiently at seeing the patients, but as the new patients came in one after another, the speed of the doctor’s work began to slow down.

"When we accomplish a job, our brain releases dopamine and improves our attention as well as memory," the researchers said. Even if the work is simple, you can get this positive feedback. That's why people are willing to give priority to doing simple jobs, which researchers call "completion bias."". After completing a simple task, cognitive resources are liberated and put into the next task. Besides, the work that has not been solved will not only take up your heart from the beginning to the end, but also occupy the attention and the mindscape. Just like the doctors who first treated patients with mild symptoms above, they kept thinking about the critically ill patients who were waiting in the waiting area.

So how do we deal with our tasks at work?The report suggests that priority levels should be identified while removing task bias. Prioritize important and urgent work, whether it's a big project, or it takes time to deal with. Another approach is to do simple tasks and difficult tasks alternately , such as doing a few simple tasks first, giving yourself a positive feedback, and then dealing with more difficult tasks.

大多数人在工作的时候，一般都会先挑容易做的事情做，然后再去做比较难处理的事情。但是哈佛商学院在7月公布的一项研究报告显示，优先完成简单任务能在短时间内提升效率，但这样做对长期工作未必有好处。研究人员挑选了两家医院，一共分析了43000位患者的病例。他们发现，候诊室里坐满了病人的时候，医生会先接待容易处理的病人。一开始，医生的效率很高，看病的速度很快，但随着陆续有新病人来看病，医生的速度开始慢下来。

研究人员说，我们完成一项工作的时候，大脑会释放多巴胺，让我们的注意力和记忆力得到提升。就算工作再简单，也能得到这种积极反馈。这就是人们愿意优先去做那些简单工作的原因，研究人员称之为“完成倾向性”。但是完成简单任务之后，认知资源会被解放，投入到下一项任务中。而那些迟迟没有解决的工作将自始至终占据在你的内心，也占据着注意力和思维空间。就像上面那些先给症状轻的病人看病的医生一样，他们心里一直想着候诊的重症病人。

那我们在工作中应该如何处理任务呢？报告建议，在排除任务偏见的同时，分清优先等级。优先处理重要且紧急的工作，不管它是不是一项大工程，或者是不是耗费时间。还有一种方法是简单的任务和艰难的任务交替进行，比如先做几个简单的任务，给自己一个积极的反馈，然后再去处理比较艰难的任务。

Mindscape

影视：思维空间

《思维空间》是由豪尔赫·多拉多导演执导，泰莎·法米加、马克·斯特朗和布莱恩·考克斯主演的西班牙剧情惊悚电影，于2014年1月24日在西班牙上映。

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