The Middle Problem: How Motivation Declines Over Time

Back at the University of Chicago, when uncommitted students looked back at the materials that they have already covered for a final exam, their motivation to keep studying increased./nBeware of long middles. We call it the middle problem. We are highly motivated at the beginning. We want to reach our goal, and we want to do it right. Over time, our motivation declines as we lose steam. To the extent that our goal has a clear endpoint, as in the case of graduating with a diploma, our motivation will pick up again toward the end./nIn one experiment, we met two artillery and found that people literally cut corners in the middle of a project. We handed our participants a pair of scissors and asked them to cut out several identical shapes with many corners. They cut through more corners in the middle of the task. The solution? Keep middle short.