Procrastination: The cognitive biases that enable it – and why it’s sometimes useful
The Hindu
Researchers have defined procrastination as the “present bias in preferences, on account of which agents delay doing unpleasant tasks.
Are you procrastinating? I am. I have been delaying writing this article for the last few days even though I knew I had a deadline. I have scrolled through social media, and I have gone down a rabbit hole looking up houses on Rightmove – even though I do not need a new house.
I have also re-watched the video Inside the mind of a master procrastinator by Tim Urban, one of the best TED talks I have seen. I found it especially comforting to learn that even pigeons procrastinate too.
Procrastination is an interesting form of delay which is irrational in the sense that we do it despite knowing it can have negative consequences. These can range from penalties or fines for a late bill to a lower grade and even a dropout in the academic context. I know on some subconscious level that if I delay finishing the draft of my book, it will cause me stress when I have to complete in a much shorter amount of time instead.
Given that procrastination causes stress and anxiety, why are most of us still prone to it? As research shows, it is related to a number of cognitive biases.
Researchers have defined procrastination as the “present bias in preferences, on account of which agents delay doing unpleasant tasks that they themselves wish they would do sooner”. Present bias (or “hyperbolic discounting”) is the tendency, when considering a trade off between two future moments, to give more importance to the one which happens sooner.
For example, we may disregard the future consequences of an action. This comes into play when I give in to temptation and eat yet another chocolate biscuit even though I know I need to cut down on sugar. My willpower does not hold up to this inherent bias where I focus on instant pleasure.
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