Procrastination has gotten a bad rap.

The belief that we shouldn’t wait until the last minute is regarded as more practical way to be productive, but pre-crastination, or the impulsive need to complete tasks ASAP, could be counter-intuitive to the quality of our work.

In one study from Pennsylvania State University, results showed that pre-crastinators may be prone to doing tasks incorrectly, such as responding to an email without taking extra time to include the right information or check for misspelled words. They may also perform the hardest version of physical duties, such as taking all the grocery bags inside at once, instead of making less strenuous multiple trips.

A New York Times article recently cited procrastination as a way to promote creativity. Bill Clinton, Steve Jobs, and Frank Lloyd Wright are all notorious procrastinators, as well as Aaron Sorkin, who prefers the term “thinking” to the “p” word.

David Rosenbaum co-authored the study on pre-crastination at Penn State. He talks with Larry Mantle today about the pros and cons of pre-crastination and why we may want spend more time getting things done.

Guest:

David Rosenbaum, distinguished professor of psychology at Pennsylvania State University and co-author of the study, “Pre-Crastination: Hastening Subgoal Completion at the Expense of Extra Physical Effort”