The Last Thing Gets the Weight

You’re reviewing someone’s performance.

Most of the year was steady.

Then something happened recently.

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Not necessarily bigger.
Just more recent.

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And almost without noticing,

it starts to carry more weight.

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You see the same pattern in projects.

Months of consistent progress.

Then a recent delay.

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Nothing about the timeline changed.

But the emphasis did.

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This isn’t a mistake.

It’s how memory works.

Recent information is easier to access,
so it quietly becomes more influential.

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At work, this shows up in subtle ways:

Performance reviews
Project narratives
Post-incident discussions

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Not as a bias we don’t understand,

but as a shift we don’t always see happening.

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A small check helps:

“Am I weighting the full timeline,
or just what’s most present in my mind?”

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Because often,

what carries the most weight
is simply what came last.