Precrastination

Have you ever started a task just to get it off your plate, and just rush through it, even if the method is inefficient? If you have, you have just precastinated. It is the opposite of procrastination, which is the act of delaying tasks. The term was coined by psychologist David Rosenbaum in 2014, so this term is, in the grand scheme of things, relatively new. The experiment is actually quite an interesting one.

It’s called the Bucket experiment and here’s how it goes. In the study, participants were to choose and carry one of two buckets (with considerable weight) down a path. One of them was placed closer, but that meant you had to carry it farther. You could either pick that bucket and walk with that bucket for a farther distance, or cover some of that distance and carry the bucket a shorter distance. If I asked you right now, which bucket would you choose? Surprisingly, the original participants in the study picked up the bucket closer to them significantly more than the other bucket, even though they had to carry the weight a further distance. This behavior showed people were willing to expend more effort just to reduce mental load, by starting the task immediately.

The most common example of this is how you structure your tasks throughout the day. Unless you change intentionally, we naturally tackle quick, low-priority to-do list items to feel productive, while avoiding the more important (but harder) tasks. Precrastination teaches us how humans are wired to finish with speed rather than efficiency.