When I woke up this morning， I had one goal： Finish this article by 11 a.m.

So， predictably， by the time it was 10 a.m.， I had made and consumed two cups of coffee， taken out the trash， cleaned my room while taking a deliberately slow approach to folding my shirts， gone on a walk outside to clear my head， had a thing of yogurt and fruit to reward the physical exertion， sent an email to my aunt and sister， read about 100 Tweets （favorited three; written and deleted one）… and written absolutely nothing.

Whats the matter with me？ Nothing， according to research that conveniently justifies this sort of behavior to my editors. Or， at least， nothing out of the ordinary for writers. Im just a terrible procrastinator.

Productive people sometimes confuse the difference between reasonable delay and true procrastination. The former can be useful （“Ill respond to this email when I have more time to write it”）. The latter is， by definition， self-defeating （“I should respond to this email right now， and I have time， and my fingers are on the keys， and the Internet connection is perfectly strong， and nobody is asking me to do anything else， but I just…dont…feel like it.”）.

When scientists have studied procrastination， theyve typically focused on how people are miserable at weighing costs and benefits across time. For example， everybody recognizes， in the abstract， that its important to go to the dentist every few months. The pain is upfront and obvious—dental work is torture—and the rewards of cleaner teeth are often remote， so we allow the appointment to slip through our minds and off our calendars. Across several categories including dieting， saving money， and sending important emails， we constantly choose short and small rewards （whose benefits are dubious， but immediate） over longer and larger payouts（whose benefits are obvious， but distant）.

In the last few years， however， scientists have begun to think that procrastination might have less to do with time than emotion. Procrastination “really has nothing to do with timemanagement，” Joseph Ferrari， a professor of psychology at DePaul University， told Psychological Science. “To tell the chronic procrastinator to just do it would be like saying to a clinically depressed person， cheer up.”

Instead， Ferrari and others think procrastination happens for two basic reasons： We delay action because we feel like were in the wrong mood to complete a task， and we assume that our mood will change in the near future. See if you recognize any of these excuses…

If I take a nap now， Ill have more focus later.

If I eat this cake now， thatll be my cheat for the month， and Ill have more willpower.

If I send a few Tweets now， my fingers will be used to typing sentences， which will make this article easier to write.

If I watch TV now， Ill feel relaxed and more likely to call the doctors office tomorrow morning.

This approach isnt merely self-defeating. It also creates a procrastination doom loop. Putting off an important task makes us feel anxious， guilty， and even ashamed， Eric Jaffe wrote. Anxiety， guilt， and shame make us less likely to have the emotional and cognitive energy to be productive. That makes us even less likely to begin the task， in the first place. Which makes us feel guilty. Which makes us less productive. And around we go.

One thing that can cut through the doom loop is the inescapable pressure of an impending deadline. So whats the best way to design deadlines to make us more productive？

People often schedule reminders to complete a project significantly before the deadline， so they have time to complete it. But this strategy often backfires. Some practiced procrastinators are both “present-biased” （they choose ESPN.com or BuzzFeed over work every time） and overconfident about their ability to remember important tasks， according to a new paper by Keith M. Marzilli Ericson. As a result， they often put off assignments， only to forget about it until long after the deadline. Procrastination and forgetfulness are bad， independently. Together， theyre a double-headed meteor hammer smashing your productivity to tiny little bits.

To hack your way to productivity， you could schedule one-shot reminders as late as possible—even slightly after you were supposed to start the project. Not only will the last-second reminder and looming deadline break the doom loop and shock you into action， but also it wont give you time to put off—and， potentially， forget about—the task.

For pathological procrastinators， recognizing that we need deadlines to bind ourselves to our responsibilities is the first step. The second step is recognizing that our own deadlines are less effective than other peoples deadlines.

In one famous experiment， Dan Ariely hired 60 students to proofread three passages. One group got a weekly deadline for each passage， and a second group got one deadline for all three readings. The third group chose their own deadlines and readers were rewarded for the errors they found and penalized a dollar for each day they were late. Group II performed the worst. The group with external deadlines performed the best. “People strategically try to curb procrastination by using costly self-imposed deadlines，” Ariely and his co-author Klaus Wertenbroch concluded， “and they are not always as effective as some external deadlines.”

A more theoretical approach， from Yanping Tu and Dilip Soman writing in the new Journal of Consumer Research， aims to change “the way consumers think about the future.” Tu and Soman point out that people have a habit of managing goals and tasks in specific time categories—we plan activities by the day， expenses by the month， and resolutions by the year. This way of thinking can separate us from future selves. When we say “Ill start that project next week，” or “Im starting my diet next month，” what were really saying is “I hope that after an arbitrary amount of time， I will be in a better mood to bind myself to this task.”

One study in their paper asked consumers to open a savings account within six months. One group was given a December deadline in June and a second group was given a January deadline in July. Although each group presumably contained a similar number of procrastinators， significantly more people in the first group chose to open their account immediately. When the deadline was a calendar year away， people were more likely to rationalize that they could put it off.

Finally， procrastinators are more likely to complete a piece of work if theyre persuaded that its not actually work. In one study reviewed by Jaffe， students were asked to complete a puzzle， but first they were given a few minutes to play Tetris. “Chronic procrastinators only delayed practice on the puzzle when it was described as a cognitive evaluation，” he wrote. When scientists described the puzzle as a game， they were just as likely to practice as anybody else.

我今天早上起床時有一個目標：在11點前完成這篇文章。

那么，可以預見地，10點前，我已經(jīng)泡好并喝掉了兩杯咖啡，扔了垃圾，打掃了房間，還故意慢吞吞地疊衣服，到外面散了個步，清醒清醒頭腦，吃了一碗水果酸奶以犒勞自己做了運動，給我阿姨和姐姐發(fā)了一封電子郵件，看了100條推特微博（收藏了3條;寫了1條，刪了1條）……卻一個字也沒落筆。

我這是怎么了？沒什么，有研究可以向我的編輯證明，這種行為是合理的。至少，對作家來說，這是很正常的。我只不過是個嚴重的拖延癥患者。

工作量大的人有時候會混淆合理的延遲與真正的拖延。前者可能是有益的（“等有更充裕的時間我再回復這封電子郵件”），而后者，據(jù)其定義，則是具破壞性的（“我應該現(xiàn)在就回復這封郵件，我有時間，我的手指就放在鍵盤上，網(wǎng)絡連接完全沒有問題，也沒有人要我去做其他事，但我就是……不……想回?！保?/p>

科學家在研究拖延癥時，他們的關注點通常會集中在人們是多么不會衡量時間對成本與收益的影響。比如說，在理論上，大家都知道每隔幾個月去看一次牙醫(yī)很重要。其中的痛苦是近在眼前、顯而易見的——看牙是個折磨——而擁有一口干凈整潔的牙齒的好處通常很遙遠，所以我們把預約牙醫(yī)這件事拋在腦后，從我們的日程表中剔除掉。在控制飲食、存錢以及發(fā)送重要郵件這幾類事情中，我們總是選擇在短時間內(nèi)就小有成效的事情（回報不明確，卻觸手可及），而非需要投入大量時間與精力的事情（回報很明確，卻遙不可及）。

然而，在過去幾年間，科學家開始認為，與時間相比，拖延癥也許與情緒的關系更大。拖延癥“真的跟時間管理沒有一點關系，”約瑟夫·費拉里對《心理科學》這樣說道，他是德保羅大學的心理學教授。“要長期的拖延癥患者馬上行動，無異于要抑郁癥患者開心起來?！?/p>

相反，費拉里和其他一些人認為拖延癥的發(fā)生主要有兩大理由：我們遲遲不行動是因為我們覺得現(xiàn)在心情不好，無法很好地完成任務，并且設想我們的心情在不久的將來就能變好?？纯茨闶欠裼X得這些借口似曾相識……

·如果我現(xiàn)在打個盹，那我等會兒就更能集中精神。

·如果我現(xiàn)在吃了這個蛋糕，今天就是我這個月的“偷腥日”，那么我的意志力就會增強。

·如果我現(xiàn)在發(fā)幾條推特微博，就能讓我的手指習慣打字，這會對我寫這篇文章有所幫助?！と绻椰F(xiàn)在看電視，我就能放松心情，也許明天早上就會打電話到醫(yī)生的辦公室。

這種方式不僅僅是自拆臺腳，還會造成拖延癥的惡性循環(huán)。推遲一項重要的任務會讓我們感到憂慮、內(nèi)疚、甚至羞愧，埃里克·賈菲寫道。憂慮、內(nèi)疚和羞恥感讓我們更不可能有心情和精神全力投入工作。這甚至可能讓我們不會在一開始就著手工作。這讓我們有罪惡感，降低我們的工作效率。我們就陷入了這樣的惡性循環(huán)當中。

能夠打破這個惡性循環(huán)的就是最后期限迫近時無可避免的壓力。那么，怎樣設定最后期限才能讓我們的工作更有效率呢？

為了能在最后期限前完成任務，人們經(jīng)常會鄭重其事地設置提示。但這個方法經(jīng)常會產(chǎn)生反效果?；肌·馬智利·埃里克森的一份新報告顯示，一些長期的拖延癥患者只顧享受眼前的事物（他們每次都選擇上ESPN. com或BuzzFeed網(wǎng)站，而非開始工作），并且對自己過于自信，認為自己能記住重要的任務。結果，他們經(jīng)常推遲任務，直到最后期限過了很久才想起來。無論是拖延癥還是健忘都不是一件好事。二者合一，它們就會如雙頭流星錘一般把你的工作效率毀于一旦。

為了提高你的工作效率，你可以設置一個比較遲的提示——甚至比你應該開始工作的時間要晚一點。最后一秒的提示和最后期限的來臨能讓你打破這個惡性循環(huán)，驚得立馬行動，你也沒有時間再推遲，也沒機會忘記任務。

對于病態(tài)的拖延癥患者而言，第一步，我們得認識到，我們需要最后期限來讓自己負起責任。第二步，我們得認識到，自設的最后期限沒有其他人給我們設定的來得有效。

在一個著名的實驗里，丹·艾瑞里雇了60名學生校對三段文字。第一組的人校對每段文字的最后期限為一周。第二組的人校對三段文字有一個確定的最后期限。第三組的人可以自己選擇最后期限，但未在最后期限內(nèi)完成工作的人則每遲一天就罰一美元，而發(fā)現(xiàn)錯誤的人則可以獲得獎勵。第二組的人表現(xiàn)最差，而最后期限受到外部影響的那組則表現(xiàn)最好?！叭藗兿敕皆O法地通過自我設立的最后期限控制拖延癥?！卑鹄锖退耐驴藙谒埂の痔共悸蹇丝偨Y道，“但自設的最后期限并不如受到外部影響的最后期限有效?！?/p>

為了改變“消費者對未來的看法”，屠陽平和迪利普·索曼以更具理論性的方法進行了研究，報告發(fā)布在新一期的《消費者調(diào)查研究》上。屠和索曼指出，人們習慣把目標和任務按照不同的實現(xiàn)期限分類——我們按日計劃活動，按月計算開支，按年下定決心。這種思考模式會把我們與未來的自己分割開來。當我們說“我下周會開始進行那個計劃，”或者“我下個月開始節(jié)食，”時，我們其實是在說“我希望過一段時間后，我會有心情做這個任務?！?/p>

他們報告中的一項研究要求消費者在6個月內(nèi)開一個儲蓄帳戶。第一組的起始時間是6月，最后期限是12月。第二組的起始時間是7月，最后期限是來年1月。雖然兩組擁有相當人數(shù)的拖延癥患者，但明顯更多第一組的人選擇即時開賬戶。當最后期限在下一年時，人們更有理由認為自己可以把事情推遲。

最后，拖延癥患者若信服某項任務其實不是工作，則更有可能完成。在賈菲審視過的一個研究中，學生被要求完成一塊拼圖，但首先他們獲得幾分鐘時間玩俄羅斯方塊。“長期的拖延癥患者只有在拼圖被描述為一項認知評估時才會推遲拼圖，”他寫道。當科學家把拼圖描述為一個游戲時，他們則可能愿意和其他人一樣拼圖。