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Is procrastination rational?
Isaac Sorkin and Henry Swift give us some good reasons to procrastinate:
Though work-smoothing may sound appealing, we all know that it never happens to the ideal degree. Part of this is certainly due to decision-making myopia. But is it possible that there is also a rational component to our procrastination habits? There are at least three reasons why this might be the case. The first is that there are fixed costs to doing homework. Suppose that in order to do homework you have to run to Kohlberg for a mocha latté...and check your favorite five media outlets as a preemptive distraction. In that case, it makes sense to have longer homework sessions in order to reduce the total number of sessions (and number of fixed costs to pay). Thus, putting things off in order to concentrate the work for a paper in one epic block means that you don’t have to waste time setting up to write again and again.
The second reason is that there may be decreasing marginal costs to doing homework. Suppose that the second hour of doing homework is much easier than the first, and the third easier yet and so on. You get in the homework zone. Then it makes sense to make your homework sessions as long as possible in order to take advantage of these returns to scale in doing homework...
The third reason is that there might be “thick-market externalities” in doing homework. The idea is that if everyone else is doing the same thing that you are, it gets easier and more enjoyable. If all of your friends are procrastinating at the same time, then the opportunity cost of doing work is that you miss an excruciatingly funny episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”... Similarly, when everyone is doing work, the opportunity cost of work is very low. After all, “Curb” is far less excruciatingly funny when watched alone. So it makes sense to do work when your friends do work, and avoid work when your friends avoid work.
Perhaps they should have been taxed for having written this. Fortunately I am a reverse procrastinator and I have no problems with these issues. It is procrastination which I put off, not work.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on December 5, 2006 at 07:32 AM in Economics | Permalink
Comments
Depends on which kind of procrastination.
Posted by: Byrne Hobart at Dec 5, 2006 7:49:47 AM
Procrastination could be rational, sure. But I doubt that most people do it for rational reasons. Many people think, "I work best when it's the last minute", but that's because if it's not the last minute, they don't work at all.
Posted by: J. at Dec 5, 2006 8:09:03 AM
There is nothing like the pressure of last minute studying to motivate someone to learn. Sure it is ideal and better to study every night for an hour each night, but a long concentrated study session where you are under the gun is tough to replicate.
Posted by: jughead11 at Dec 5, 2006 8:13:10 AM
This is really not something I should read right now, while I'm trying to find the will to study for my exams...
Posted by: juliette at Dec 5, 2006 9:05:37 AM
Getting a mocha latte and checking your five favorite media outlets is procrastination--it's not a requirement of doing homework. I would argue that it is the delay of homework/study sessions that is procrastination, not the length of the session (which is usually connected to the difficulty of the assignment). Looking at it in that way, I can see the benefit: if I wait until the deadline is breathing down my neck, I can get more work done in a shorter period time. The benefit (or lack thereof) to my mental health is perhaps less apparent.
Posted by: j.m. at Dec 5, 2006 9:12:18 AM
I have always wondered when I leave something with a tailor or dry cleaners, why they give me delay. So let's say I drop it off on Monday and they say it will be ready on Thursday. I always have a suspicious that they are rushing to finish the work as I am walking in on Thursday morning.
Finally, my first semester in graduate school and I am of course up against it. But I have learned that I need to give work time to sit otherwise I feel very insecure about the quality of the work. A paper now must be done the night before so that I can look over it with fresh eyes the morning I turn it in. Of course, a week's time to look it over would be much better.
Posted by: RWP at Dec 5, 2006 9:13:14 AM
A better policy for getting through graduate school (especially if you want to publish while you're there) is to start writing papers before the semester even begins. You know what the topic is, and you can get the reading list from the professor beforehand, so start early. That way, you can end the semester with an article rather than a paper.
Posted by: J. at Dec 5, 2006 9:41:39 AM
Many of these comments remind me of the ultimate procrastinator's maxim:
If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute.
Posted by: Todd at Dec 5, 2006 9:53:03 AM
Think about tweakers and the time wasted in tweaking: 1) You write a 20 page term paper a week before the deadline; 2) each day before the deadline you open up the paper, re-read it and revise.
In the end, you could spend many more hours total on the paper than if you put it off until the last possible moment. The last five days of tweaks won't increase the quality at all, so this time is wasted.
Thus, procrastination is a valid time management strategy.
Posted by: Macneil at Dec 5, 2006 10:49:12 AM
In some corporations, the parameters of some projects will change from day to day. Procrastinating keeps you from having to do the project over when the parameters change drastically. (Argument for better planning on your superior's part? Yes.)
Posted by: Sebastian Holsclaw at Dec 5, 2006 11:12:03 AM
"So it makes sense to do work when your friends do work, and avoid work when your friends avoid work."
This ignores the intense pleasure of being done with all of your work while your friends are procrastinating. You get all of the benefit of that procrastination fun without your work-conscience constantly nagging you.
Posted by: catquas at Dec 5, 2006 11:37:37 AM
In some settings, if you wait, some work will just disappear.
Being the first guy in class to start on you homework means that you'll be the one which struggles for 3 hours on that wrongly worded problem which cannot be solved and emails the teacher about it. Everyone else can free ride on the teacher's apology and explanation when it gets the reply gets emailed to the whole class.
In some settings, this is, however, 100% wrong. Most "irrational behaviour" is just heuristics on the extreme case where, being heuristics, they fail.
Posted by: luispedro at Dec 5, 2006 12:06:02 PM
After 4 hours your productivity will be zero
Posted by: S at Dec 5, 2006 1:18:37 PM
With all respect to my fellow undergrads in the suburbs, they argued for doing homework in one sitting, but never made an argument for waiting until the 11th hour.
I disagree with the decreasing marginal cost of doing homework as time time elapses. Rather, the argument would more reasonably be that their is increasing marginal productivity for some period of time while you are in the "zone". Most students know that you don't stay in the zone for too long before fatigue sets in and the caffeine effects from that pre-homework triple ventu caramel latte w/ skim subside.
Jeff @ Drexel
Posted by: Jeff at Dec 5, 2006 4:10:51 PM
Doing homework for 4 hours straight can't be more efficient than more shorter sessions.
However, in school and in work, requirements change over time. Some teachers collect only half the work they assign...
Posted by: bhauth at Dec 5, 2006 4:51:20 PM
There is nothing like pulling an all-nighter to write a 20 page research paper, but i have to disagree with the decreasing marginal cost of doing homework as time elapses. I feel that saying that there is an increase in marginal productivity as time elapses would be a more accurate comparison. However, the only downside to this is that many know that this increase in productivity only lasts for so long.
Posted by: Jason at Dec 5, 2006 5:38:04 PM
I find procrastination forces me to use my time more efficiently. I don't waste time redoing work or over-focussing on details.
Posted by: aaron at Dec 6, 2006 11:00:27 AM
I find procrastination forces me to use my time more efficiently. I don't waste time redoing work or over-focussing on details.
Also avoids complications with changing requirements and allows ideas do marinate better.
Posted by: aaron at Dec 6, 2006 11:04:40 AM
Two more reasons to procrastinate:
Credible Commitment: It's a lot easier to convince people to leave me alone when I'm working to meet an imminent deadline.
Inter-temporal Uncertainty: Hard work might pay off eventually, but procrastination pays off right away.
Posted by: Windypundit at Dec 6, 2006 12:30:02 PM
My little sister attended a Montessori school from age 5 through 6th grade. Now she runs her own business while going to college. She has never had a problem with procrastination, and credits the Montessori method for that. Because there were never any assignments to turn in, there was never a reason to procrastinate. Instead she learned to do work because it was interesting and beneficial.
Posted by: Christina at Dec 6, 2006 2:24:15 PM
It is ludacris to deny that their is a definite increase in marginal productivity as a result of procrastination. When starting an assignment well in advance distractions are much more persistent and prevalent considering the diminished costs of not working at optimum efficiency. However, when staring at an imminent deadline such costs sky-rocket and not pushing to continually increase marginal productivity becomes much more costly. Thus, procrastination is an invaluable cost reducing tool, assuming the operator possesses the skill to properly wield it.
Posted by: ryan at Dec 6, 2006 3:47:53 PM
I feel that this artical is right on with the procrastination today. I can try to work on a paper for like a week in advanced and never really get a good start on in untill the day before it is due. There is something about being rushed and knowing that you dont have very long to do a task that makes it eaiser to me. I guess that there is no re-start whenyou do something all at once.
Posted by: Nick at Dec 6, 2006 4:23:26 PM
Quasi-hyperbolic discounting, surely?
Posted by: puzzled at Dec 6, 2006 8:05:00 PM
I have a response and a application to law school exams available here
Posted by: Dave at Dec 6, 2006 11:21:14 PM
I agree that the idea of procrastination makes more sense than to just assume it is a decision making myopia. I for one know that after one hour of sitting and truly concentrating on an assigment it becomes that much easier to move on to the next. I would assume this is true with many other college students - as it is something I observe in many who live around me. During this time of year (exams) everyone is busy in their rooms working bent over a laptop for hours on end. There is something about knowing that everyone else IS in fact doing the same thing that makes it almost easier to lessen the oppurtunity cost!
Posted by: Deiah Haddock at Dec 7, 2006 9:02:18 PM
