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Do you know about precrastination? A behavior that is the opposite of procrastination, which can have its advantages but also its disadvantages.
Precrastination is a behavior that involves completing tasks as soon as possible, often well before they are actually necessary.
What is precrastination?
The term “precrastination” was coined by psychology researchers in 2014, in a study led by David Rosenbaum, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, to describe a tendency that is the opposite of procrastination. Precrastination causes people to tackle tasks immediately to reduce the mental load associated with the to-do list.
What does the study by David Rosenbaum and his colleagues say?
They found that participants in an experiment preferred to perform a simple task immediately, even if it involved more physical effort, rather than postpone it and save energy. This inclination to precrastinate was motivated by the desire to reduce the mental load associated with pending tasks.
In a statement, David Rosenbaum explained about this behavior: “Their desire to lighten their mental load was so strong that they were willing to put in extra physical effort to achieve it.”
Feeling good in your body, feeling good in your head!
What are the advantages and disadvantages?
If precrastination can improve productivity and reduce anxiety linked to pending tasks, it can, however, lead to impulsive decisions. Not to mention a potential inefficiency that this generates, due to the tendency to favor immediacy over the optimization of efforts and resources.
So what to do?A healthy balance between precrastination and procrastination may involve effectively planning and prioritizing tasks without feeling pressured to complete them immediately.”told the media Guardian Christopher Gehrig, professor of psychology at Helmut Schmidt University in Germany.
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