1 00:00:00,580 --> 00:00:03,246 You're probably starting this class thinking that you're going to do all the 2 00:00:03,246 --> 00:00:05,510 work. You're going to be a great student. 3 00:00:05,510 --> 00:00:07,590 You're going to start by watching all the videos. 4 00:00:07,590 --> 00:00:09,680 You're going to take the quizzes. You're going to do readings. 5 00:00:09,680 --> 00:00:11,720 You're going to take the readings quizzes. 6 00:00:11,720 --> 00:00:17,559 And, you'll be 100% with the class. Except that you're human, just like all 7 00:00:17,559 --> 00:00:20,540 the rest of us. So probably, you'll procrastinate. 8 00:00:20,540 --> 00:00:24,359 You're about to do the readings and your friend calls you at the movie you've been 9 00:00:24,359 --> 00:00:28,121 hearing about, or the trampoline gym, or just wants to go out for drinks and hang 10 00:00:28,121 --> 00:00:30,538 out. It happens to all of us. 11 00:00:30,538 --> 00:00:33,610 But, procrastination doesn't have to be counterproductive. 12 00:00:33,610 --> 00:00:38,550 For example, as I'm making this video, I'm thinking about finishing the quizzes. 13 00:00:38,550 --> 00:00:45,44 I really should finish the quizzes. A big contributor to procrastination is 14 00:00:45,44 --> 00:00:48,170 what Kahneman and Tversky would call the planning fallacy. 15 00:00:48,170 --> 00:00:52,724 Basically, the planning fallacy says that even when we have a lot of experience 16 00:00:52,724 --> 00:00:56,864 with something, we still tend to underestimate the amount of time it'll 17 00:00:56,864 --> 00:00:59,955 take us. This explains a whole lot, for example, 18 00:00:59,955 --> 00:01:04,180 why are they running 10 minutes late to everything this week, even though, I go 19 00:01:04,180 --> 00:01:07,793 to these places all the time. Think about the last time you had an 20 00:01:07,793 --> 00:01:12,8 assignment to do or a trip to pack for. Did you find yourself right up agaist the 21 00:01:12,8 --> 00:01:15,976 deadline, did you find yourself staying up all night to pack, and forgetting 22 00:01:15,976 --> 00:01:19,907 something like an adaptor? This is pretty common. 23 00:01:19,907 --> 00:01:24,867 So, the next time you have something to plan for, an assignment or a quiz for 24 00:01:24,867 --> 00:01:30,147 example, try estimating, it'll take you twice as long and then it might get done 25 00:01:30,147 --> 00:01:30,816 on time. 26 00:01:30,816 --> 00:01:34,870 >> Deadlines are important. Now, of course, you already knew that. 27 00:01:34,870 --> 00:01:39,158 But, I'm going to really drill it in for you by telling you about some researches 28 00:01:39,158 --> 00:01:41,710 that Dan conducted with Klaus Wertenbroch. 29 00:01:41,710 --> 00:01:45,545 This is actually in one of your assigned readings for week five on self-control. 30 00:01:45,545 --> 00:01:47,846 But I'm just going to give you a little preview. 31 00:01:47,846 --> 00:01:51,866 This study basically looked at whether people spontaneously set deadlines for 32 00:01:51,866 --> 00:01:55,460 themselves, and if they do, how optimally they set these deadlines. 33 00:01:55,460 --> 00:01:59,78 Dan and Klaus let some students choose their own deadlines for three papers that 34 00:01:59,78 --> 00:02:01,0 were going to be due at the end of the term. 35 00:02:01,0 --> 00:02:05,355 And for the other students, they had to abide by these preset deadlines that were 36 00:02:05,355 --> 00:02:09,200 spaced evenly throughout. For those who are allowed to choose their 37 00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:12,720 own deadlines, the rational thing to do would be to set them all on the due date 38 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:16,3 and not a minute earlier. After all, they can always turn in their 39 00:02:16,3 --> 00:02:20,95 papers early and this would give them the maximum amount of time to work on each. 40 00:02:20,95 --> 00:02:24,142 But, the students had some intuition that they would run into self-control problems 41 00:02:24,142 --> 00:02:28,294 and probably procrastinate. And, so they, they sort of distributed 42 00:02:28,294 --> 00:02:32,127 their papers throughout the term. So far, great. 43 00:02:32,127 --> 00:02:36,50 But, did they distribute these deadlines optimally? 44 00:02:36,50 --> 00:02:39,182 Not quite. If we take a look at the performance of 45 00:02:39,182 --> 00:02:42,562 those who impose their own deadlines and those who are given deadlines, we see 46 00:02:42,562 --> 00:02:45,545 that on average, the second group scored higher on their papers. 47 00:02:45,545 --> 00:02:49,385 So far it looks like self-imposed deadlines are just not as effective as 48 00:02:49,385 --> 00:02:53,254 externally imposed deadlines. But, when we look a little closer at the 49 00:02:53,254 --> 00:02:57,544 group that set their own deadlines, we can see that the students among them who 50 00:02:57,544 --> 00:03:01,636 set evenly spaced deadlines actually did just as well as those in the other 51 00:03:01,636 --> 00:03:04,157 condition. It doesn't really matter who sets the 52 00:03:04,157 --> 00:03:06,295 deadlines, just that they're evenly spaced. 53 00:03:06,295 --> 00:03:10,68 So, bottom line, in the face of self-control problems like 54 00:03:10,68 --> 00:03:12,792 procrastination, smart deadlines help. 55 00:03:12,792 --> 00:03:19,350 >> Are you a Sponge or are you a Roomba? We really want to know what approach 56 00:03:19,350 --> 00:03:22,793 you're going to take to this course. So we're asking you to sign a commitment 57 00:03:22,793 --> 00:03:26,228 contract. That means, some of you will choose to be 58 00:03:26,228 --> 00:03:29,970 more passive sponges. You're going to watch the lectures and 59 00:03:29,970 --> 00:03:33,352 not much else. Some of you will be fully engaged in the 60 00:03:33,352 --> 00:03:35,485 course. You're going to complete all the 61 00:03:35,485 --> 00:03:39,410 assignments, watch the lectures, participate in the discussion boards. 62 00:03:39,410 --> 00:03:43,122 There is not a right or a wrong choice, but we'd really like to know what 63 00:03:43,122 --> 00:03:47,192 approach you're going to take. So, please go to the About the Course 64 00:03:47,192 --> 00:03:52,226 section and look at the timeline. There, you'll have the opportunity to 65 00:03:52,226 --> 00:03:55,930 make a commitment contract to one of the categories. 66 00:03:55,930 --> 00:04:00,210 One way we'd like to help you manage your time is by posting an online calendar. 67 00:04:00,210 --> 00:04:05,235 This calendar has all of the assignments and deadlines you need to complete this 68 00:04:05,235 --> 00:04:08,199 course. It's also something that you can easily 69 00:04:08,199 --> 00:04:12,770 upload to your own online calendar in whatever format works best for you. 70 00:04:12,770 --> 00:04:17,711 You'll notice that all the assignments are due at 11:59 p.m., EST, that's 71 00:04:17,711 --> 00:04:22,610 Eastern Standard Time. We're at lovely Durham, North Carolina 72 00:04:22,610 --> 00:04:27,870 and real cities like Washington DC and New York City are located. 73 00:04:27,870 --> 00:04:33,242 You'll have a full week to get to know the material before the quizzes due. 74 00:04:33,242 --> 00:04:39,38 But, since this is about procrastination, you might want to finish those quizzes a 75 00:04:39,38 --> 00:04:40,488 little bit earlier. 76 00:04:40,488 --> 00:04:43,599 >> The last thing we want to talk to you about is how to spend your time wisely so 77 00:04:43,599 --> 00:04:47,946 that you get the most out of this course? One way to do this is thorough testing. 78 00:04:47,946 --> 00:04:52,569 Now, testing has pretty bad reputation, especially in some circles, but when it's 79 00:04:52,569 --> 00:04:55,730 done, right it can really help you retain information. 80 00:04:55,730 --> 00:04:59,636 So if you take the passive sponge approach that Susan described to you, you 81 00:04:59,636 --> 00:05:03,983 might feel like you're getting all of the information, that you're understanding 82 00:05:03,983 --> 00:05:06,561 everything. But, until you put yourself into a 83 00:05:06,561 --> 00:05:11,169 slightly vulnerable position, you might not realize that you haven't picked up as 84 00:05:11,169 --> 00:05:14,554 much of it as you thought. What the research suggests on this and we 85 00:05:14,554 --> 00:05:18,194 supplied you with an article in the Pre-course Recommended Reading, is that, 86 00:05:18,194 --> 00:05:21,666 when we're passively absorbing information and everything seems to make 87 00:05:21,666 --> 00:05:25,474 sense, we're not aware of those gaps in our understanding that really only reveal 88 00:05:25,474 --> 00:05:28,248 themselves once we try to retrieve that information. 89 00:05:28,248 --> 00:05:33,84 So our brains go uh-oh, I guess I didn't really understand that, as well as I 90 00:05:33,84 --> 00:05:36,582 thought I did, and we try to fill in that information. 91 00:05:36,582 --> 00:05:40,252 And, once we try to fill in those gaps, we start to learn more. 92 00:05:40,252 --> 00:05:44,770 So, it turns out that highlighting is mostly a waste of time. 93 00:05:44,770 --> 00:05:47,720 I can't get sued by the highlighter companies for that, can I? 94 00:05:47,720 --> 00:05:51,816 Unless you just want to add some color to an otherwise drab piece of paper, it's 95 00:05:51,816 --> 00:05:53,248 not going to get you very far. 96 00:05:53,248 --> 00:06:04,394 >> We know you want to learn, so test yourself. 97 00:06:04,394 --> 00:06:07,31 [MUSIC].