Don’t Procrastinate Important Tasks. But Don’t Precrastinate, Either.

You’ve heard of the dreaded habit of procrastination, or putting off tasks until the very last minute usually due to stress and overwhelm. This avoidant tactic was a common struggle for me in college.

But what about precrastination?

Coined by psychologist David Rosenbaum, precrastination is “the tendency to attempt to get things done as soon as possible, even if that involves extra effort,” according to a study published in Current Directions in Psychological Science. In said experiment, Rosenbaum explored the concept of precrastination in comparison to the well-known “procrastination.”

“Since its discovery in 2014, precrastination has been demonstrated in humans and animals and has recently been revealed in an analogous tendency called the mere-urgency effect,” the study stated.

“Trying to get things done as soon as one can may reflect optimal foraging, but another less obvious factor may also contribute—reducing cognitive demands associated with having to remember what to do when.”

Eva M. Krockow Ph.D., referenced Rosenbaum’s study in Psychology Today, stating: “Imagine you’re standing in an alley with two buckets: one close to you, the other farther away. You need to choose one to carry over the finish line at the end of the alley, but which one would you grab? Logic says the farther bucket—you’d save effort by carrying the heavy object for a short distance.”

“But most people in Rosenbaum’s original bucket experiment chose the closer one, opting for a longer carry,” she continued. “They wanted to clear their mental to-do list, as soon as possible. Welcome to precrastination in action.”

‘Precrastination’ Is No Better Than Procrastination

So, precrastination isn’t even beneficial. In fact, it can be just as damaging as procrastination—sometimes even more so. 

Both of these opposing instincts seem to be driven by anxiety and stress. While procrastination appears to be avoidance-based, precrastination appears to be urgency-based. In other words, precrastinators take immediate action to settle any uncertainty about the future and declutter their brains. 

“People may precrastinate out of the fear of not being able to finish something on time,” Christopher Gehrig, a psychology professor at Helmut Schmidt University in Germany, told The Guardian. He also stated that there’s a link between precrastination and neuroticism.

Basically, these individuals fear having too much on their plate at once, so they scarf down whatever is in front of them to clear up space for the future (metaphorically speaking, of course). While this isn’t necessarily negative, if someone chooses to act too soon, like in Rosenbaum’s experiment, they might not think their actions through or reflect on potential implications. 

If you find yourself operating in this way, the key is to take a beat to reflect before immediately diving into action. According to Krockow, you should also break larger tasks into smaller, more manageable ones, as well as prioritize tasks based on importance and impact.