Procrastinators, Self-Imposed Deadlines Won't Save You

The chronic procrastinators of the world know that the struggle to find a way to get themselves motivated is real. We block distracting websites. We try meticulous to-do lists to help us prioritize the tasks we don’t really want to do. And — perhaps most commonly — we give ourselves fake deadlines to pressure ourselves into doing said tasks.

Well, I’ve got some bad news for youRecent research suggests that self-imposed deadlines simply don’t work.

In the study, researchers Alberto Bisin and Kyle Hyndman asked three groups of students to alphabetize three word jumbles, telling them they would receive $15 for each jumble completed on time. The first group of participants were given evenly spaced deadlines for each jumble, the second group a final deadline for all the jumbles, and the third allowed to set their own deadlines. Read more...