Let's All Wait Until the Last Minute!

Maybe we're not that much different from animals after all. You see, they say that what separates humans from other animals is our ability to conceive of the future, to plan, to use tools to get what we want. We're finding out that crows, orangutans, and other animals use tools in limited ways; similarly, predators (e.g. lions, wolves, orcas) have been shown to cooperate in hunting so as to isolate or encircle prey. One supposes that this means they share some of the attributes that distinguish us from animals.

Further support for animals not being quite so different from humans comes from the huge percentage of (fully grown) humans who insist on waiting until the very last minute to do, well.... just about everything! I mean, it's understandable when a little kid poops his/her pants because they don't realize the inevitability of what's about to come out. Little kids, like animals, essentially respond to the immediate situation rather than planning ahead. Cause and effect don't mean so much to them, and they often don't see how their actions now result in consequences later. Yet kids learn quickly, and soon figure out how to get that cookie or mom's affection, how to stay out of trouble, etc.

Amazing then, that so many grown adults exhibit - time after time - behaviors that cause them (and those who have to deal with them) grief, all because they refuse to think ahead and do some basic planning. Take for example - school teachers. Grades are due every 6 weeks. Teachers know it; they know the due dates long in advance; they know how long it takes to calculate and enter grades. And yet.... A great many of these college educated people, ostensibly intelligent, will do nothing about their grades until the night before they're due, and then complain about how unreasonable it is to have to enter them on time! Why is that?

But it's hardly just teachers acting this way. Every April 15th the TV news shows people lined up at special post offices that are open until midnight, dropping off their tax returns. Many other people don't wait until literally the last minute; they went ahead and prepared their returns as much as 24 hours before the deadline! Almost as many, however, couldn't quite bring themselves to meet the deadline; they asked for an extension, as they do every year. "Oh my God! Taxes are due tomorrow - who knew?" What are these people - morons?

And there's my friend Mark. We've been friends for 30 years now, and Mark is probably the best friend I've got. I need something? Mark's there, every time, no questions asked. But he's always late. He says he'll be over between 5:00 and 6:00, I know that means we'll probably see him sometime after 7:00. That's just the way Mark is, and we've learned to adapt, to accept him as he is. But still - why is that?

Of course, the common denominator is that these folks seem unable to do a little simple planning. I mean, just how hard is it to figure out: "hey, I'm 30 minutes away, maybe 45 with traffic. To get there by 6:00, I should leave by 5:15. To get ready by 5:15, I ought to start getting my act together around 4:30." Do you need a PhD in astrophysics to be able to work backwards in time like that? Or, "geez, grades are due on October 26th and they take me 4 or 5 hours to do. If I start them a week before, and work on them a little bit every day, it would be easy to have them in by the 24rd or 25th. If I get sick, or the car breaks down, or the surf's good, or whatever, I've still got some leeway without having to stress!" Is that kind of reasoning accessible only to, like, MENSA geniuses or something?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The "why", as in "why do they wait until the last minute?" isn't because they're so busy, as is usually the excuse. Yeah, EVERYBODY'S busy; it's just that some people deal with that reality effectively while others essentially close their eyes and hope it will all go away. And a number of people swear they do their best work by waiting until the last minute. Bull - that's just lame rationalizing. The truth is that choosing to wait until the last minute to do things is just plain stupid, and it's rude. There's no advantage to it, unless you want to count the adrenaline rush that comes from trying to beat a deadline. Your work ends up being more rushed and lower quality than it could and should be. You're stressed, and half the time you end up having to make lame excuses for why you missed the deadline, begging for an "exception", an "extension". Meanwhile, other things that need doing get pushed aside, delayed or not done at all. Where's the benefit?

Besides, this behavior is rude and childish. Suppose you regularly show up half an hour later than you tell people - that's 30 minutes that someone else has to wait for you. 30 minutes that they could have been doing something else with their time; 30 minutes of you saying, in effect, "my time is more important than yours!" It's the same general concept with last minute work, and especially work that ends up being half-assed or misses a deadline. Your message is basically that the work (which someone else is counting on) isn't that important, that it's your priorities, not the other person's, that matter. This is selfish, childish behavior.

But again - what's in it for the last minute person? Well it's not really that you "saved time", like so many claim. Had you given yourself an earlier deadline, had you broken the work up into smaller chunks to work on every day or every week, your total time invested would have been the same. It's just that you arranged it differently - earlier, over time instead of all at once at the very end. You showed the ability to look ahead, to plan, to act like a grown up human being instead of a reactionary animal or a little kid.

Too often, society sees the person who gets stuff done early and expects the same of others as unrealistic, an over-achiever, or just a plain old prick. That childish view is unlikely to change anytime soon, just as it's unlikely that most procrastinators will ever choose to do a little simple planning that shows that they are, in fact, intelligent, grown humans and not little kids.