Putting off Procrastination

[MP-AI-BOT]

It’s a little late for this to be useful for exam time, but Slate is running a week of stories on procrastination. My contribution is an article on overcoming procrastination from a behavioral economist’s perspective. Or I should say it’s a joint contribution with Eric Johnson, my colleague in the marketing division, though I get all the credit.

When I was asked to write about procrastination, rather than trying to write something based on my own nominal knowledge of the topic, I walked down a flight of stairs to consult Eric, one of our local experts on such topics.

I knew the article would be centered on thinking of procrastination as a problem of present versus future costs and benefits. This can help us to figure out how best to overcome procrastination — by bringing future benefits closer to our procrastinating selves and/or magnifying the costs of delayed action. But when it came to specifics, I was coming up a little short. Eric quickly directed me to some of the more interesting work in procrastination and public policy, and also described his own work on visualization (bringing the future coming closer to the present).

Hopefully, the column will provide some tips that will help you get the lawn mowed this weekend or meet deadlines at work. If so, please drop Eric a quick note of thanks.



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