You’ll Feel Better if You Can Wrap up Your Tasks on Friday

You’ll Feel Better if You Can Wrap up Your Tasks on Friday

The sense of having left tasks unfinished at the end of a week makes employees more likely to ruminate about work-related problems and impairs sleep over the weekend, according to a diary study of 118 knowledge workers by Christine J. Syrek and Conny H. Antoni of the University of Trier in Germany. The impact of unfinished tasks on rumination and sleep is worsened if leader expectations are high, a finding that suggests a need for supervisors to communicate expectations without overstraining employees. Insufficient psychological recovery from work during time off can lead to impaired health, the researchers say.