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SALT LAKE CITY — People who get things done early can actually use more energy and effort than those who wait or procrastinate, a new study says.
The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, used nine different scenarios to test if a person would choose the easier task of two choices. The first scenario revolved around picking up plastic beach pails and moving them to a different destination, in this case, a narrow alley.
Participants could pick up the bucket that was closer to them and carry it all the way to the end of the alley or they could pick up a different bucket that was closer to the middle of the alley, walk a few steps and put it back down.
The researchers thought the participants would think the second scenario that involved walking halfway down the alley before picking up the bucket, was easier, but they were surprised at the results. Most of the subjects chose to pick up the bucket that was closer and carry it longer than necessary to the end of the alley. Another way to put it, they did extra work without an apparent reward.
“We couldn’t figure out what on earth was going on,” said lead researcher David Rosenbaum, according to The New York Times. “We thought maybe we made a mistake with the instructions.”
People who are checking things off the list all the time might look like they're getting stuff done, but they're not getting the big stuff done.
–Alan Castel, associate professor of psychology, UCLA
The researchers performed eight more experiments to determine if people would continue to irrationally choose to complete a goal even if it meant working harder without a benefit. The subjects still tended to choose the closer bucket that was sometimes heavier to carry. When asked why, the subjects told the researchers they just “wanted to get the task done sooner.”
"By picking up the near bucket, they could check that task off their mental to-do lists more quickly than if they picked up the far bucket," Rosenbaum said, according to The Guardian. "Their desire to lighten their mental load was so strong that they were willing to expend quite a bit of extra physical effort to do so."
The danger in precrastinating lies in completing small, less important tasks at the expense of bigger ones, such as constantly answering emails or a phone call, says Alan Castel, associate professor of psychology at UCLA.
“People who are checking things off the list all the time might look like they’re getting stuff done,” he said to The Times, “but they’re not getting the big stuff done.”
