Professors Todd Rogers and Max Bazerman set out to explore a particular behavioral phenomenon through a study they conducted. They asked participants whether they would agree to enroll in a savings plan designed to automatically deduct two percent of their paycheck for a savings account.
While almost everyone acknowledged that saving money was a sound principle, their actual choices painted a different picture:
When faced with enrolling in the savings plan right away, a surprisingly small fraction—just 30 percent of individuals—indicated they would commit.
However, a different outcome emerged when participants considered enrolling much later, perhaps a year from the present. In that case, a significant majority, 77 percent, expressed their willingness to join the plan.
What was it about the timing that shifted their perspectives so dramatically?
It turns out, this small-scale experiment offers some rather profound insights into why we often put off actions we know are good for us.
Understanding Procrastination: Your Present Self Versus Your Future Self
There’s a natural inclination within us to prioritize our present desires, occasionally neglecting what our future selves might need. The allure of immediate benefits is strong, particularly when the true repercussions of our choices won’t surface until far down the line.
For example:
Consider eating a donut:
1:the sugar rush is instant.
2:The impact of consistently skipping your workouts, however, won’t become evident until weeks or even months have passed.
3:Or think about spending money today on something like a new iPhone—an immediate sense of satisfaction.
Yet, the financial strain of not saving for retirement won’t truly be felt until you discover you’re years behind where you should be.
And on a broader scale, the unrestricted use of fossil fuels provides immediate energy, warmth, and power.
4:However, the profound costs of climate change won’t fully reveal themselves until decades of environmental damage have already accumulated.
However, it’s fascinating how our choices tend to shift when we look further down the road. Picture yourself a year from now: would you prefer to be struggling with your weight and still reaching for donuts, or feeling strong and consistently keeping up with exercise? On paper, that long-term decision seems straightforward.
Yet, when we’re confronted with making that very choice right here, in this immediate moment, we often downplay what those future costs will be, and instead, inflate the immediate, albeit fleeting, satisfaction that comes from habits that don’t truly serve us.
Behavioral economists have a term for this phenomenon; they refer to it as “time inconsistency.” It essentially describes how our mindset shifts. When we’re planning for the future, we naturally gravitate towards decisions that promise long-term gains — “Absolutely, I’ll put more into savings!”
we might tell ourselves. But then, when it comes to the present moment, our desires often swing towards immediate gratification — “You know what? I’ll just spend it now.”
For my part, I’ve found it helpful to think of this as the “Present You vs. Future You” dilemma. Your Future Self understands the importance of actions that will yield the greatest long-term advantages. However, your Present Self is frequently drawn to, and tends to overemphasize, those things that deliver an instant reward, right here and now.
So, if this is why we often find ourselves procrastinating, what steps can we actually take to address it?