How do you overcome procrastination? Advice from science

You have a to-do list as long as your arm, ten commitments pending, and so many appointments to make…but you’re saying to yourself “Can you wait until tomorrow”? Of course: I fell into the abyss of procrastination. The problem: By putting off work “until later” you end up feeling confused.

How do you overcome procrastination? This is the question that researchers at the University of Otago (New Zealand) tried to answer through a study published in the specialized journal. Economic investigation.

Deadlines increase procrastination

The researchers worked with a group of volunteers who had to answer an online questionnaire. For some participants, researchers set a one-week deadline; For others, the deadline was one month; For the remaining volunteers, there was no deadline.

Al-Qaeda? The scientists found that the highest response rate came from people who did not have a fixed deadline. In contrast, the response rate was lower in the group of volunteers who had one month to participate in the questionnaire.

How do we explain these results? for researchersThe long run allows for procrastination and forgetfulness: the concept of urgency no longer exists. Conversely, when no deadline is set, participants are more likely to imagine that there is an implied deadline, not knowing its deadline, resulting in the task not being postponed to a later time.Tip to apply it daily!

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