What is the best deadline length to actually get stuff done?

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Australia; New Zealand; NSW

Shorter deadlines of one week, or no deadline at all, may be better than month-long deadlines if you want to avoid procrastination and actually get tasks completed, according to Australian led research. Deadlines can help motivate us to get stuff done, but longer deadlines can mean we put off the task and might forget about it. The researchers mailed out surveys and asked people to complete them in one week, one month or with no deadline. They got most responses without a deadline, but the one week deadline was still better than the one month deadline. The authors say this is evidence that specifying a longer deadline as opposed to a short deadline or no deadline at all, removes the urgency to act, so people put off the task and those who are inattentive might forget to complete the task entirely.

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Economic Inquiry
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Organisation/s: Macquarie University, University of Otago
Funder: Funding for this project was provided by the Department of Economics, Otago Business School, University of Otago
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