【英语生活】不想拖拖拉拉

I tend to procrastinate and leave tasks until the very last moment. As a consequence, I always feel as though I could have done more and that my potential has been somewhat unfulfilled. However, I find I concentrate much better and am more prolific with a deadline dangerously close. Can economics help me resolve this tension?
T.N., Limerick, Ireland

Dear T.N.,

The answer is obvious: make sure you always have a deadline to hand, and you will always be prolific. That, at least, is the logical implication of your letter. It is also backed up by research.

The behavioural economists Dan Ariely and Klaus Wertenbroch conducted an instructive study of procrastination with three groups of students at MIT. Each group had to complete three assignments over the course of the 12-week course. The first group had a separate deadline for each paper, after four, eight and 12 weeks. The second group had no intermediate deadlines: all three papers were due at the end of the course. Students in the third group were asked to impose their own deadlines.

Students with well-spaced deadlines – those in the first group and a subset in the third who had spaced out their deadlines – tended to achieve the highest grades. Students who had assigned themselves no intermediate deadlines, or had been assigned none, fared poorly.

You must learn this lesson. Ensure that a binding deadline is always looming. Chop up large tasks into smaller ones and assign a deadline for each one. If you do not have a professor willing to make these deadlines meaningful, you can do so yourself. Make firm commitments to your colleagues or clients. Alternatively, write out a schedule and make bets with a few friends that you'll stick to it. If “the very last moment” is always “now”, you'll be the world's most productive procrastinator.

我做事情常常一拖再拖，把工作拖到最后一刻。因此，我总是觉得好象自己原本可以完成更多的工作，自己的潜力没有充分发挥出来。但我发现，在最后期限即将来临时，我的注意力要集中得多，工作效率也更高。经济学能帮我解决这个问题吗？

T•N•利默里克(T.N., Limerick)，爱尔兰

亲爱的T•N

答案显而易见：保证你手头上总有一个最后期限，这样你的工作就会总是十分高效。至少，按照逻辑，从你的来信中可以得出上述结论。研究也支持这种结论。

行为经济学家丹•艾瑞里(Dan Ariely)和克劳斯•韦坦布洛克(Klaus Wertenbroch)针对麻省理工学院(MIT)的三组学生，进行了一项有关拖延时间问题的研究，结果颇具启发性。每一组学生都必须在12周内完成3项任务。第一组学生完成每篇论文的最后期限分别为第4周、第8周和第12周。第二组学生没有被指定期中的最后期限——三篇论文都须在课程结束时完成。第三组学生被要求自行设定最后期限。

设定了时间分布均匀的最后期限的学生——包括第一组学生，以及自行分开设定最后期限的一部分第三组学生——往往得分最高。没有自行分开设定最后期限、或未被指定任何最后期限的学生，则表现得很糟糕。

你必须吸取这个教训。确保眼前总有一个具有约束力的最后期限。把大型任务分割为若干较小的任务，并分别为它们设定最后期限。如果你的教授无意让这些最后期限变得有意义，你自己可以赋予它们意义。信守你向同事或客户许下的诺言。或者，写出一张进度表，与几个朋友打赌你能赶上进度。如果“最后一刻”总是在“眼下”，在全世界喜欢拖延的人中，你将是效率最高的一位。

译者/章晴