Procrastination and the Non-Monotonic Effect of Deadlines on Task Completion

We conduct a field experiment to test the non-monotonic effect of deadline length on task completion. Participants are invited to complete an online survey in which a donation goes to charity. They are given either one week, one month or no deadline to respond. Responses are lowest for the one-month deadline and highest when no deadline is specified. No deadline and the one-week deadline feature a large number of early responses, while providing a one-month deadline appears to give people permission to procrastinate. If they are inattentive, they might forget to complete the task.

Keywords: charitable tasks, charitable giving, deadline, procrastination, forgetting, field experiment

JEL Classification: C91, D64

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Knowles, Stephen and Servátka, Maroš and Sullivan, Trudy and Genç, Murat, Procrastination and the Non-Monotonic Effect of Deadlines on Task Completion (August 13, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2576625 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2576625