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Deadlines: What Kind of People Respect Them the Easiest

Do you respect deadlines?

By Craig DanielsPublished 2 years ago 3 min read
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Deadlines: What Kind of People Respect Them the Easiest
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

A new culture cannot be experienced without a certain dose of shock. It's like trying to swim without water. In terms of local business culture, experts believe that the shock felt by ex-pats who come to work in companies present locally is because employees find it very difficult to work with deadlines or to keep promises.

Do you want a job done on time? Assign an overworked employee. Strange as it may seem, things do tend to be this way, as long as the person in charge of this responsibility can conceptualize the terms behind the newly drawn duty.

The situation is amply described in a recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Research. Two North American researchers, Yanping Tu from the University of Chicago and Dilip Soman from the University of Toronto, focused on the individual's ability to deepen and accomplish tasks.

Previous studies reflected the progress of the action at different stages: pre-decision, post-decision, action, and recapitulation. More recently, however, the transition from the decision to action is considered a change of mentality, as reflected in an article in The Economist.

The beginning is the key

The human way of being is deliberate, balancing the beneficial and negative influences of action while remaining open to suggestions and other ideas.

However, a person's mind is much more motivated once the decision is made to act. "There is a huge difference between the mind that is already wondering where it can quickly buy a sandwich and the one that still oscillates between buying a sandwich or not," explains Dr. Yu. In other words, the easiest way to complete a task is to do it. "The cornerstone of achieving a goal is starting the action," the study said.

Temporal binding

The two discovered that the human mind perceives the time about the task entrusted differently if a temporal connection is made between the deadline and the present.

Awareness of the duration in which the task must be performed is done by reporting the present to a calendar date close to the deadline, whether it is the personal calendar of each individual (birthday, date of leave, the birthday of a loved one, etc.) or calendar general (Christmas, Easter, end of the month, end of the year).

In any case, this temporal connection provides a precise sense of the time available and allows the dosing of the action to fulfill the task set. In parallel, without such a temporal connection, the perception of time is diluted and the start of the action is delayed until the last moment.

Anchored now

To present their theory, the two tested the reactions of study volunteers, from Indian farmers to undergraduate students at the University of Toronto. In the case of farmers, each group was provided with a financial incentive stating that within six months they would open a bank account and deposit an amount in it.

For farmers approached in June, the task was easier to complete, as they related to the annual calendar to better assess the time distance that separates them from the deadline. For farmers who were approached in July, the January deadline was not a conscious pressure, not being able to anchor the post-New Year period to the needs of the present time.

Canadian students who were handed calendars for a few weeks, with the opportunity to choose their day to complete their homework, reacted positively only if the weekends, which were the deadline, were colored distinct.

This means that success in accomplishing tasks results from a better perception of time, and a future event consciously linked to today triggers a response from those involved.

Is it easy for you to respect deadlines? Which type of employee are you?

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