I believe that you are confusing anchoring with temporal motivation theory. It’s not the suggested deadline that causes the procrastination itself, but rather the perceived utility of a given activity increases exponentially as the deadline nears.
If you want to avoid procrastination, this article, which is part of a larger series, can help.
those ideas aren’t very similar, I’m definitely not confusing them with each other
Procrastination may have more than one cause. Like, if you don’t want your china teacup to shatter, you have to stop it from falling on the floor, but you also have to stop things from falling on top of it. Both would cause it to shatter.
Sorry, that comment did not come out correctly. My bad. What I meant is that you might not have the right reason that explains why moving deadlines closer reduces procrastination.
I don’t think anchoring is related to procrastination. Making the deadline closer may help procrastination, but it does not seem like anchoring is the mechanism by which it happens.
I’m actually familiar with the time-discounting of utility explanation, thanks for bringing it up though!
You’re saying “the” mechanism, isn’t there at least one other? Like, I bet the planning fallacy is involved some of the time. I’ve only read that first Lukeprog article, but surely nobody’s claiming that it contains the only factors that contribute to procrastination?
Hehe, “the mechanism” was referring to the entire procrastination process, not one specific theory or cause. Could my communication be improved somehow, or is some confusion somewhat unavoidable?
The definition of procrastination in psychology is, “procrastination refers to the act of replacing more urgent actions with tasks less urgent, or doing something from which one derives enjoyment, and thus putting off impending tasks to a later time.” It appears like procrastination is motivated by bad feelings about urgent tasks or good feelings about less important tasks.
However, anchoring relates more to making judgements based off a value provided first. There is no emotion involved. Normally people do not think “it looks like the deadline is 2 weeks away, when should I do it?” Instead, they put it off because of an emotional reason, like they have an urge to play video games, or the task is painful to think about.
Since anchoring does not cause the feeling or urges that drive people to procrastinate, I don’t think it has an impact on doing tasks sooner or later.
I don’t know. Just retread your posts a couple minutes later maybe? I just feels frustrating to make sense of them sometimes. So maybe with some time to forget what you meant, you’ll be able to read your post like somebody else, and feel the frustration they feel, and remedy it?
I’m sorry if nobody else has trouble with your posts and it’s just that I have some sort of problem understanding you.
Anyway… It sounds like you distinguish between two different reasons people start later than optimal:
Bad planning that causes us to intend to start later than optimal
Emotional factors that cause us to start later than intended
I agree that reason 2 is more properly called procrastination than reason 1, and that anchoring-induced delays, if they exist at all, would be part of reason 1.
So, yeah, if anything, anchoring on a deadline causes irrational delay, not really procrastination.
I believe that you are confusing anchoring with temporal motivation theory. It’s not the suggested deadline that causes the procrastination itself, but rather the perceived utility of a given activity increases exponentially as the deadline nears.
If you want to avoid procrastination, this article, which is part of a larger series, can help.
Good luck!
those ideas aren’t very similar, I’m definitely not confusing them with each other
Procrastination may have more than one cause. Like, if you don’t want your china teacup to shatter, you have to stop it from falling on the floor, but you also have to stop things from falling on top of it. Both would cause it to shatter.
Sorry, that comment did not come out correctly. My bad. What I meant is that you might not have the right reason that explains why moving deadlines closer reduces procrastination.
I don’t think anchoring is related to procrastination. Making the deadline closer may help procrastination, but it does not seem like anchoring is the mechanism by which it happens.
Okay I see what you’re saying now.
I’m actually familiar with the time-discounting of utility explanation, thanks for bringing it up though!
You’re saying “the” mechanism, isn’t there at least one other? Like, I bet the planning fallacy is involved some of the time. I’ve only read that first Lukeprog article, but surely nobody’s claiming that it contains the only factors that contribute to procrastination?
Hehe, “the mechanism” was referring to the entire procrastination process, not one specific theory or cause. Could my communication be improved somehow, or is some confusion somewhat unavoidable?
The definition of procrastination in psychology is, “procrastination refers to the act of replacing more urgent actions with tasks less urgent, or doing something from which one derives enjoyment, and thus putting off impending tasks to a later time.” It appears like procrastination is motivated by bad feelings about urgent tasks or good feelings about less important tasks.
However, anchoring relates more to making judgements based off a value provided first. There is no emotion involved. Normally people do not think “it looks like the deadline is 2 weeks away, when should I do it?” Instead, they put it off because of an emotional reason, like they have an urge to play video games, or the task is painful to think about.
Since anchoring does not cause the feeling or urges that drive people to procrastinate, I don’t think it has an impact on doing tasks sooner or later.
I don’t know. Just retread your posts a couple minutes later maybe? I just feels frustrating to make sense of them sometimes. So maybe with some time to forget what you meant, you’ll be able to read your post like somebody else, and feel the frustration they feel, and remedy it?
I’m sorry if nobody else has trouble with your posts and it’s just that I have some sort of problem understanding you.
Anyway… It sounds like you distinguish between two different reasons people start later than optimal:
Bad planning that causes us to intend to start later than optimal
Emotional factors that cause us to start later than intended
I agree that reason 2 is more properly called procrastination than reason 1, and that anchoring-induced delays, if they exist at all, would be part of reason 1.
So, yeah, if anything, anchoring on a deadline causes irrational delay, not really procrastination.