Morgen, Morgen, Nur Nicht Heute

It's tempting to mock social scientists who study productivity, then make pronouncements such as "the key step in getting things done is to get started."

Once the laughter subsides, we may discover that researchers have something useful to say about what makes us stop dithering and take action. The trick is simple: get our minds to view a task "implementally," i.e., in the present, though the actual deadline could be months away:

the key that unlocks the implemental mode lies in how people categorise time. They suggest that tasks are more likely to be viewed with an implemental mindset if an imposed deadline is cognitively linked to "now"—a so-called like-the-present scenario.

Your humble observer read this item last week and was going to make a joke about linking to it only today, but the Economist editor already came up with a similar observation:

Note: The text for this final Babbage post was originally submitted some four weeks ago. The editor claims full responsibility for procrastinating over the post's production and publication, blaming his conception of time for the delay.