對(duì)抗拖延癥?試試欺騙你的大腦

If You Want to Meet That Deadline, Play a Trick on Your Mind

對(duì)抗拖延癥?試試欺騙你的大腦

It’s just a few days into the new year. How are you doing on your resolutions? Wait: Have you even started on them yet?

新的一年剛過(guò)去幾天，你的新年計(jì)劃完成得如何?等等：你開(kāi)始實(shí)施這些計(jì)劃了嗎?

Recognizing that the hardest part of many tasks is beginning them at all, two researchers have sought to determine whether certain outside cues can jump-start us toward reaching our goals. Such cues, which manipulate our perception of time, are simple yet effective, according to a recent article in the Journal of Consumer Research.

由于認(rèn)識(shí)到對(duì)于許多任務(wù)，最困難的部分就是開(kāi)始執(zhí)行，兩名研究人員試圖確定，一些外部提示能否快速啟動(dòng)我們的計(jì)劃，讓我們向著目標(biāo)邁進(jìn)。根據(jù)《消費(fèi)者研究學(xué)刊》(The Journal of Consumer Research)最近的一篇文章，這種提示能夠操控我們對(duì)時(shí)間的感知，簡(jiǎn)單、有效。

In one study, conducted in 2010, the researchers asked two groups of farmers in India to set up a bank account and accumulate a certain amount of money by a deadline, offering extra money as an incentive. One group was approached in June, with a deadline of December that year. The second group was approached in July with a deadline of January the next year.

在2010年的一項(xiàng)研究中，研究人員讓印度的兩組農(nóng)民開(kāi)設(shè)一個(gè)銀行賬戶(hù)，并在截止日期之前積攢一定的資金，而且還給他們提供了額外的資金作為獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)。研究人員于6月找到其中一組農(nóng)民，給他們?cè)O(shè)定的截止日期是當(dāng)年12月，又于7月找到另一組人，給他們?cè)O(shè)定的截止日期是次年1月。

The farmers in the first group were more likely to set up an account immediately, even though both groups had the same amount of time. That’s because the deadline was in the same year as the assignment and therefore seemed more like the present, said Yanping Tu, a Ph.D. candidate at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. She performed the research along with Dilip Soman, a marketing professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. (Lest you think that only farmers in India would benefit from this approach, the two researchers also found similar results among undergraduates and M.B.A. students in North America.)

第一組中的農(nóng)民更傾向于快速開(kāi)設(shè)一個(gè)賬戶(hù)，盡管兩組人擁有的時(shí)間一樣多。這是因?yàn)椋刂谷掌谂c布置任務(wù)的時(shí)間在同一年，所以看起來(lái)更接近現(xiàn)在，在芝加哥大學(xué)布斯商學(xué)院(University of Chicago Booth School of Business)攻讀博士學(xué)位的涂艷蘋(píng)說(shuō)。她與多倫多大學(xué)羅特曼管理學(xué)院(Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto)的營(yíng)銷(xiāo)學(xué)教授迪利普·索曼(Dilip Soman)一起進(jìn)行了這項(xiàng)研究。(兩位研究者在北美的本科生和MBA學(xué)生中，也得出了相似的結(jié)果，以免你認(rèn)為只有印度農(nóng)民會(huì)受益于這種辦法。)

So the inventors of the New Year’s resolution were on the right track when they had people set new goals on Jan. 1 rather than Dec. 31. But clearly that’s not enough, since the past is littered with unachieved resolutions. Fortunately, there are other time-related cues that can give people that in-the-present feeling.

所以，如果讓人們?cè)?月1日，而非12月31日來(lái)設(shè)定新目標(biāo)，那么新年計(jì)劃的制定者就走上了正確軌道。但是，這顯然還不夠，因?yàn)檫^(guò)去充斥著太多未完成的計(jì)劃。幸運(yùn)的是，還有一些與時(shí)間相關(guān)的提示，能讓人產(chǎn)生活在當(dāng)下的感覺(jué)。

In a separate study, the researchers also found that people were “more likely to start working on a task whose deadline is in the current month than in the next month,” even though the number of days to finish the task was the same, Ms. Tu said.

研究人員還在另一項(xiàng)研究中發(fā)現(xiàn)，“與截止日期在下個(gè)月的任務(wù)相比，人們更傾向于開(kāi)始執(zhí)行截止日期在當(dāng)月的任務(wù)”，盡管完成任務(wù)的天數(shù)一樣，涂艷蘋(píng)說(shuō)。

Color can also influence the perception of time, she said. She and Professor Soman found that simply by coding a stretch of calendar days in the same color — say, blue — with an assignment occurring on the first “blue” day and the deadline set for the last “blue” day, people were more likely to complete the tasks. Once again, this serves to make the future deadline seem more like the present. (Managers, are you listening? Get out your crayons.)

她說(shuō)，顏色也會(huì)影響人們對(duì)時(shí)間的感知。她和索曼發(fā)現(xiàn)，僅僅通過(guò)給一系列日歷天標(biāo)上同樣的顏色——比如藍(lán)色——在第一個(gè)“藍(lán)色”的日子分配任務(wù)，截止日期設(shè)在最后一個(gè)“藍(lán)色”的日子，人們完成這些任務(wù)的可能性就會(huì)增加。所以，這也能讓未來(lái)的截止日期顯得更加迫近。(管理者們，你們?cè)诼?tīng)嗎?請(qǐng)拿出你們的彩筆。)

Research into procrastination has noted that people have much less concern about their future selves than their present selves — and are willing to sell their future selves down the river for the sake of present ease. But when the present marches into the future, and we are confronted with the work that our past selves refused to do, we pay the price in unmet deadlines, all-nighters and general torment.

對(duì)拖延癥的研究指出，與未來(lái)的自己相比，人們對(duì)現(xiàn)在的自己的關(guān)注程度要高很多——而且為了目前的舒適，他們?cè)敢獗撑盐磥?lái)的自己。但是，當(dāng)現(xiàn)在走向未來(lái)，當(dāng)我們面對(duì)著過(guò)去的自己所拒絕完成的工作時(shí)，我們就要在沒(méi)完成任務(wù)的最后期限付出代價(jià)，通宵達(dá)旦，忍受折磨。