Mini-deadlines, a list of benefits and early marks got work in sooner
Who it’s about: Children, Students
- Helped
Students who split work into dated parts, listed benefits and earned early marks handed in three days ahead of others.
- Action: Split a big task into piecestested
- Action: List the benefits of finishingtested
- Rule: Give each piece its own deadlinetested
- Rule: Bonus for early, small penalty for latetested
Randomised trial of 308 secondary school students in Hong Kong · vs the same assignment and a video on relaxing · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ student thesis, not checked by other scientists; whole groups were assigned, not people
- No difference
The same package, with a checklist for removing distractions, didn't change how much students said they put things off.
- Action: Remove distractionstested
- Action: Split a big task into piecestested
- Rule: Give each piece its own deadlinetested
- Rule: Bonus for early, small penalty for latetested
Randomised trial of 308 secondary school students in Hong Kong · vs the same assignment and a video on relaxing · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ student thesis, not checked by other scientists; whole groups were assigned, not people
The study
Who took part
308 students aged about 13 at one secondary school in Hong Kong, in 14 class groups. A little over half were boys.
What they did
Half the class groups watched a 40-minute video workshop, then did a school assignment at home. They split it into smaller parts, each with its own date. They wrote a list of why it mattered and used a checklist to remove distractions. They also got extra marks for handing it in early. The other class groups got the same assignment without these steps and watched a video on relaxing.
What happened
The first group handed in their work about 7 school days before the deadline, against about 3 days for the other group. 75 students in the first group handed it in 10 days early, against 29 in the other group. But students in both groups said they put things off about the same amount. This was an unpublished master's thesis.
Source
Reducing academic procrastination for junior secondary school students : the application of the temporal motivational theory (2014)
DOI: 10.5353/th_b5394226 (opens in a new tab)Tools in this study
Rule · how6
Bonus for early, small penalty for lateGraded consequences for timing, with a grace window.
