There’s something thrilling yet perilous about waiting until the eleventh hour to start a task. I’ve been riding this wave ever since I realized I could KO my Stochastic Process course’s weekly assignment in just ninety minutes. The completion time is surprisingly consistent, with remarkably low variance. This discovery led to a new Wednesday morning ritual: waking up a bit earlier, heading to my office, and tackling the assignment like a brisk morning workout. It’s a thrilling adrenaline-fueled start to the day.
However, this habit echoes a fascinating episode of the Freakonomics podcast, which delves into project management and the inescapable “planning fallacy”. Principle theorem:
In order not to crash all your deadlines, factor in extra time while planning.
The root of the issue lies partly in impulse control. We’re wired to seek immediate gratification rather than long-term rewards. Additionally, we often fall prey to optimism bias in our planning, underestimating the time needed for tasks. This combination of procrastination and poor planning can lead to disastrous outcomes if not managed properly.
This personal tendency has led to a backlog in my blog content. Topics like DRL-HFT and economics that I promised to cover have been gathering dust. Several other tasks are still floating in my mental to-do list, unrecorded and forgotten until panic sets in just before their deadlines. It’s tremendously terrifying btw, to find unstarted TODOs right before their deadline. For someone studying economics, witnessing my own irrationality and deviation from the ideal of ‘homo economicus’ is both ironic and alarming. It’s a wake-up call to realign my habits and get back on track.
In conclusion, while last-minute efforts can sometimes result in a burst of productivity, they often lead to a cycle of stress and unfulfilled potential. I hope to embrace a more balanced approach to task management, ensuring that my future endeavors, both in my studies and on this blog, reflect a more thoughtful and efficient strategy.