How good we are at preparing for the future depends on when, exactly, we envision the future being. Procrastinators waste time until the last possible second before getting down to business. Thus, minimizing procrastination might just be a matter of tricking your mind into thinking that the second is now. ⁠ ⁠ In a new study published in the journal Psychological Science, researchers found that manipulating the metric by which the future is measured—in years, months, or days—can change how people prepare for that future. In several different tests, participants perceived the future as much more imminent if they were primed to think of a deadline in days, rather than months. ⁠ ⁠ _____⁠ ⁠ In one trial, 162 people were asked to imagine preparing for some future event, like a wedding or a work presentation. Those who were asked to think of the time until the event in days perceived it as happening 296 days sooner than those who were asked to think of the time in months or years. In another ...