People choose a task carrying a deadline over a more valuable task without one, even when the urgent task's reward is smaller.
Zhu and colleagues found in 2018 that the mere presence of a time constraint pulled choice toward the urgent option regardless of payoff, and that the effect was strongest among people who believed themselves busy. Urgency is a visible property and importance is a judgement, so the cheaper cue wins.
In practice
- A day spent entirely on things with deadlines has advanced nothing that matters and felt productive.
- A team whose queue is sorted by due date works on whatever is nearest its date, not on what is worth most.
- Standing
- Related to the Eisenhower Matrix, which prescribes the corrective.
- Subject
- Decision-making & Reasoning
- Essay
- The catalogue of predictable errors