I think it’s missing the point to claim that the deadlines are causing you to procrastinate in this case. If there weren’t any deadlines for med school applications, what would it even mean to procrastinate on them?
It’s also not clear to me that the best time to work on med school applications is in fact over the summer. There are other things you could be doing with that luxuriously free summer time. During the school year you’re working on various unpleasant things already, so you might as well lump one more unpleasant thing in there. (I did my grad school applications in November of the relevant year and that was fine.)
I think it’s missing the point to claim that the deadlines are causing you to procrastinate in this case. If there weren’t any deadlines for med school applications, what would it even mean to procrastinate on them?
It’s also not clear to me that the best time to work on med school applications is in fact over the summer. There are other things you could be doing with that luxuriously free summer time. During the school year you’re working on various unpleasant things already, so you might as well lump one more unpleasant thing in there. (I did my grad school applications in November of the relevant year and that was fine.)
Hmm. The post title should probably be “Does anchoring on deadlines cause procrastination?”
I think the basic mechanism behind procrastination is hyperbolic discounting.