Scientists have discovered an unexpected harm from procrastination: why you shouldn't break deadlines

Studies of human psychology conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom show that it is better to submit work on time rather than improve it through procrastination. Scientists have found that missed deadlines make people evaluate work more harshly.

According to the survey, if a work is submitted late, it is evaluated more harshly than if the deadline is met. That is, even if you are tempted to spend the maximum amount of time allotted to put the finishing touches on a report, submission, or paper, the extra effort may not be appreciated by your colleagues if it comes at the expense of timely submission, The Guardian writes.

"All the research we could find looked at how deadlines affect the minds and actions of employees. We wanted to find out how the deadline affects the minds and actions of others when they look at these workers," said Professor Sam Maglio, who researches at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management.

The study surveyed thousands of people in the U.S. and U.K., including managers, human resources personnel and others whose jobs included an element of evaluating others.

Participants were asked to evaluate works such as advertising flyers, art, business proposals, product presentations, photographs, and news articles. But first they were told whether it was submitted early, on time, or late. The work that was labeled as "submitted late" was consistently rated as lower in quality than when people were told the same work was done early or on time.

Missing a deadline made evaluators believe that the employee was less responsible, and they reported that they would be less willing to work with that person or assign tasks to them in the future.

"Everyone has seen the same art competition application, school application, or business proposal, but they couldn't help but use their knowledge of when it was turned in to judge how good it was," commented Maglio, who co-authored the study with David Fung of Stanford University.

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