Here is a simple thought experiment.
Imagine you have been hired as a proofreader for a set of essays, each about 10 pages long.
You have three options:
- You can set your own deadlines and turn in each essay separately;
- You can hand everything in at the last minute before a final deadline
- You can go with a predetermined set of deadlines for each essay.
Which would you choose?
Most people (myself included, of course) go with the 2nd option, I,e handing everything in at the last moment.
After all, we reason, I’ll do the work at my pace and then hand it all in whenever I like. There can be exceptions where you really like the work and want to get it done quickly.
But if work involves a certain kind of resistance in you, you tend to choose 2nd option.
Unfortunately, this decision ignores our tendency to procrastinate (something book editors will be all too familiar with!).
While we all start off with the best of intentions to space out the work evenly, inevitably other things come up, our best-laid plans are
disrupted, and we end up doing all the work at the last minute.
Yet, psychologists have found that imposed deadlines are the most effective.
Researchers split people into three groups randomly and assigned them one of the conditions outlined above.
Those who were told they had to follow equally spaced deadlines found the most errors, yet handed their work in with the least delay.
The group who chose their own set of deadlines found fewer errors and were nearly twice as late handing in their reports.
However, the worst-performing group was those who were allowed to wait until the final deadline to hand everything in.
This group found far fewer errors than the other two groups and were nearly three times later in handing in their reports than those who worked to equally spaced deadlines.
This experiment provides a possible weapon to place in our arsenal against the behavioral pitfall of empathy gaps and procrastination—pre-commitment.
So what can you in any profession as seller, engineer, writer, do to prevent from falling into these emotional time travel pitfalls?
One simple answer is to prepare and pre-commit.
To overcome the procastrination, one should learn to follow the
Seven P’s—:
Perfect planning and preparation prevent piss poor performance.
