Why deadline extensions always seem to lead to more deadline pressure

“If only, if only I had one more week to get this done,” so we often say to ourselves in utter despair when working under a crushing deadline.

But — do we really do better when we extend our deadline, and have more time?

Not really, says Heidi Grant Halvorson, who recently tackled this issue in the Harvard Business Review. She directs the Motivation Science Center at the Columbia University.

In their weekly conversation, WHYY’s behavioral health reporter Maiken Scott and psychologist Dan Gottlieb talk about deadline pressure – and what happens when it is removed, if only temporarily.