Halfway to a Goal: Focus on What's Done or What's Left?

In a fundraising letter sent through a charity called Compassion Korea, the goal was 10 million won, roughly US$10,000, for AIDS orphans in Africa, and about half was already raised. One version of the letter said “half is in.” The other said “half is still needed.” Which one worked depended on who opened it.

That is the core of Koo and Fishbach (2008), published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (94(2), 183-195). If you are partway to a goal, whether to look at what you have done or at what is left comes down to how sure you are that the goal matters to you.

What exactly did the two letters show?

Regular donors, who gave $35 a month and were already committed, gave more often and in larger amounts when the letter stressed the remaining half. First-time prospects, whose commitment was uncertain, did better with “half is in.” I am relying on a chapter by Fishbach summarizing the study, as reported there; I could not open the original paper, and the chapter gives the direction of the results rather than exact donation figures.

Was it only a charity effect?

No. In Study 1, undergraduates planned study time for a core course, where commitment was high, or an elective, where it was low. Each focused on the 50% of material covered or the 50% still untouched. For the elective, “covered so far” raised willingness to study. For the core course, “not yet covered” did.

Why would the same number push in opposite directions?

Because you read it as an answer to a question. If you are asking “is this worth doing?”, completed work is evidence that it is. If you are asking “am I there yet?”, the remainder is evidence that you are not. Koo and Fishbach describe this as commitment versus progress, and a to-date frame feeds the first question while a to-go frame feeds the second.

What should I do on a flat Wednesday?

Notice which question you are actually asking. When motivation sags and you are wondering whether the whole thing is pointless, count what you have finished. When you already know it matters and are drifting, name the gap. This pairs naturally with the endowed progress effect, which shows how a head start changes persistence, and with the goal-gradient account of quitting near the end, where the finish line itself does the work.

The limits are real. These were short-term choices by students and one mailing, and the studies measured willingness and giving, not whether anyone got a degree or a cure for orphans. Tracking itself is not automatically helpful either, as Harkin’s meta-analysis of progress monitoring shows.

Does this help with something like getting up on time?

A little. A morning goal is a count of days, and on day 40 of 60 you can say “40 done” or “20 left” depending on your mood. DontSnooze asks for a short video when the alarm fires and sends a random camera-roll photo to friends you chose if you skip, so the daily tally is a record of what you did rather than a feeling.

For keeping attention on a long task, see the brief-break experiment and its replication record. Praise and framing interact too: praising ability instead of effort changed which problems children chose.