Procrastination is a familiar and widely discussed proclivity: postponing tasks that can be done earlier. Precrastination is a lesser known and explored tendency: completing tasks quickly just to get them done sooner. Recent research suggests that precrastination may represent an important penchant that can be observed in both people and animals. This paper reviews evidence concerned with precrastination and connects that evidence with a long history of interest in anticipatory learning, distance reception, and brain evolution. Discussion unfolds to encompass several related topics including impulsivity, planning, and self-control. Precrastination may be a new term in the psychological lexicon, but it may be a predisposition with an extended evolutionary history. Placing precrastination within the general rubric of anticipatory action may yield important insights into both adaptive and maladaptive behavior.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 58. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 15 February 2026.
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#909,193
of 33,199,067 outputs
Outputs from Learning & Behavior
#21
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Outputs of similar age
#15,084
of 373,941 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Learning & Behavior
#4
of 23 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 33,199,067 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 97th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 549 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.2. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 373,941 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 23 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 82% of its contemporaries.
