Think Days, Not Years, to Fight Procrastination

To fight procrastination, researchers offer a simple trick: think of the future as now.

"So when I think in a more granular way—when I use days rather than years—it makes me feel like the future is closer," says Daphna Oyserman. "If you see it as 'today' rather than on your calendar for sometime in the future, you're not going to put it off."

To fight procrastination, researchers offer a simple trick: Think of the future as now.

“The simplified message that we learned in these studies is if the future doesn’t feel imminent, then, even if it’s important, people won’t start working on their goals,” says Daphna Oyserman, lead researcher and co-director of the USC Dornsife Mind and Society Center.

Through a series of scenarios, Oyserman and coauthor Neil Lewis Jr. of the University of Michigan found that study participants perceived that the future was much more imminent if they thought of their goals and deadlines in days instead of months or years.

If you see it as 'today' rather than on your calendar for sometime in the future, you're not going to put it off.

— Daphna Oyserman, lead researcher, USC Dornsife Mind and Society Center