You may be prone to missing deadlines for work or school projects. You may leave your friends waiting so often that they have to tell you an earlier time than everyone else when you are meeting somewhere. You may be the person no one wants in their group because you’re just not dependable.

or

You could be the person who always finishes projects on time, arrives 5 minutes early to everything and wears a cape and spandex when it comes to group projects.

If you’re in the first group, you don’t intend to be. Some disconnect happens between when an expectation is communicated and the result that you produce.

Personally, I’m more than a little OCD. I hate being late, missing a deadline or not carrying my weight. I haven’t always been that way, though. One principle changed that all for me.

Are you ready for the reason some of us (maybe you) can’t help but drop the ball?

Over confidence in your future self.

What does that mean? It means you think you’ll be better equipped and more capable in a day, week, month or year to accomplish a task than you are at this very moment.

In other words: You think you’re Peter Parker today but you’re banking on a radioactive spider bite to turn you into a super-powered productivity machine before the deadline.

It’s not impossible that you’ll be better equipped with more training, experience or know-how, but really, that’s just a complete and total cop-out.

Here’s an example: Say your boss gives you a project to complete in one week. You have lots of other things to work on and you know you’ll eventually get to the project. Maybe you even start out of the gates excited, but then you get to a tough spot and press pause. You tell yourself you’ll find an extra burst of energy at the end, near the deadline (and some people do) to finish. But you don’t get the boost you were hoping for. You may or may not finish the project, but either way, it’s likely not as good as it could be.

It’s not just projects that we delay. It’s the reason we’re always running five minutes late. We’re so over-confident in ourselves that we do other things up until the very last moment of when we could leave to still be on time, but we end up late because we weren’t completely ready. You have to brush your teeth, put on your shoes, find your car keys and unplug the iron so your house doesn’t burn down.

We become so over-confident in ourselves that we think we can teleport and slow down time.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

First, we think that even if we’ve done poorly in the past that the next time will be better.

I love the optimism, but the issue is doing the same thing we’ve done in the past and thinking or hoping that the future will be different. If you do the same thing, you’ll get the same thing.

Second, we are procrastinators by nature.

We choose to put hard things off until the very last minute. This leads to stress, anxiety and all-around madness. It’s simpler to believe that it will be easier in the future.

Third, our future self is easier to rely on than our present self.

It’s easier to be confident in what we’ll be able to accomplish in the future because we don’t have to finish it in the present. Another cop-out.

There are plenty of other reasons why this happens. Now that you know why it happens, here’s how to correct it (or to help your friends).

How do I fix this?

1. Recognize when you’re putting too much faith in your future self.

Now that you know what’s happening, identify it and make a plan instead of just saying you’ll figure things out later.

2. Be realistic.

You have to be real about how much time something will take. You’re better off overestimating the time it will take and finishing early rather than vice versa.

3. Break big projects down into achievable tasks.

If you need to prepare to leave for a trip over the weekend, first, make a list of all you’ll need. Next, start assembling the items you won’t need between now and when you leave. Third, get anything you don’t already have at home the day before you leave. Next, the night before, get everything packed and ready to go and put your bags by the door. Finally, when it’s time to leave, double-check your list and walk out the door. Any project can be tackled that way, and it’s worth investing the time to do that.

4. Do things now.

Stop putting things off. Sit down. Saddle up. Don’t take no for an answer and make things happen.

5. Over-prepare.

The more prepared you are, the more likely you are to over deliver. Set yourself up well do accomplish what you need to by doing all you can before the deadline.

Question: How do you keep from becoming over-confident in your future self? What other suggestions would you offer?

If you’re looking for some nerdy psychology on this check out this paper by Erik Helzer here.