Nudge · 2-minute read
People reliably pick urgent tasks over important ones — even when the important task pays off more.
Deadlines are vivid; importance is quiet. Experiments show people choose tasks with short deadlines over more valuable tasks without them, simply because urgency grabs attention.
Protecting high-value work means deliberately interrogating urgency, rather than letting the loudest deadline set the day.
The research: Zhu, Yang & Hsee (2018), Journal of Consumer Research.
Adapted from Nudges at Work by Tareef Jafferi, shared in partnership with Happily.ai.
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