Procrastinate

Think about a choice you made recently. Any choice. Which you're 110 percent certain that it's a good choice. That way most people are guaranteed to agree with your choice because the correct choice seems so obvious that we don't have to prove it.

Now, here's the bad news: Most of such choices turn out to be wrong. Although we're confident with our correct decisions, the growing evidence from studies have shown otherwise. That's an inspiring lesson I learn after reading The Small BIG.

Okay, let's think about the gift cards. Those cards for redeeming coffee at a high-quality shop, for example. There are two options with the same cash value: one is valid for three weeks, another is good for two months. What would you choose? The three-week or two-month version?

Hang on a second. What is the odds that you will redeem the card before its expiry day? Put more simply, is there a better feeling to get a gift card that lasts longer? Many would say so, and most of us would bet that we're more likely to redeem that one lasting for two months. That's exactly what the researchers tried to test. It turns out that - no surprise - close to 70 percent of those who evaluated the two-month gift card said that they would use it, compared to about 50 percent who evaluated the card that lasts for three weeks. And no wonder: more flexibility means better terms.

Except that it's wrong.

Five times as many given the good-for-three-weeks-only card visited the shop to claim their coffee than those given the long-expiration date card. When it comes to opportunity cost of longer expiration date, the downside is more excuse to procrastinate. In reality, a closer deadline encourages us to get the job done earlier, rather than later. And much less excuse to procrastinate. To this I keep the habit of borrowing books from library. It is the due day that gives me a better chance to finish the book. The closer the due day, the better. I borrowed two books from the university library last Sunday, The Christmas Box and The Social Animal. The first one is due for return in one week, and the second one isn't due until four months later. Which book do you think I have finished earlier?