Optimal and sub-optimal temporal decisions can explain procrastination in a real-world task

Procrastination is a universal phenomenon, with a significantproportion of the population reporting interference and evenharm from such delays. Why do people put off tasks despitewhat are apparently their best intentions, and why do they de-liberately defer in the face of prospective failure? Past researchshows that procrastination is a heterogeneous construct withpossibly diverse causes. To grapple with the complexity of thetopic, we construct a taxonomy of different types of procrasti-nation and potential sources for each type. We simulate com-pletion patterns from three broad model types: exponential orinconsistent temporal discounting, and waiting for interestingtasks; and provide some preliminary evidence, through com-parisons with real-world data, of the plausibility of multipletypes of, and pathways for, procrastination.