Pardon the Interruption: Goal Proximity, Perceived Spare Time, and Impatience

There is no worse time to be interrupted than right now. Being close to attaining a goal to complete a focal task increases the attractiveness of that task compared to an interrupting task (study 1), makes people less willing to take on some otherwise attractive interruption than if they were farther away from completion (studies 2, 3, and 4), and causes them to perceive that in that moment they have little spare time (studies 3 and 4). Consumers immersed in goal pursuit are affected by local progress on an individual subgoal that supports an overarching goal even if this has no effect on the timing of attaining the overarching goal. Observers do not appreciate the motivating power of proximity to completing subgoals, and this leads them to mispredict the behavior of others (study 5).