precrastination

P3R1E1C3R1A1S1T1I1N1A1T1I1O1N1
UK/pɹiːˌkɹæstɪˈneɪʃə̆n/US/pɹiːˌkɹæs.tɪˈneɪ.ʃən/

noun

The completion of a task too quickly or too early for the optimal outcome; the compulsion to act in this way.

Scrabble 19

Meanings

nounprecrastination (usually uncountable, plural precrastinations)

plural precrastinations · alternative pre-crastination

  1. uncountableusuallyhuman sciencesThe completion of a task too quickly or too early for the optimal outcome; the compulsion to act in this way.

    Lanyun Gong and Cory Potts, the two students with whom I did this work, and I conducted a number of experiments to check our precrastination interpretation.

    2017, David A. Rosenbaum, Knowing Hands: The Cognitive Psychology of Manual Control, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 234
    3 more examples

    My colleagues and I called this tendency “precrastination.” The term was meant to connote the opposite of procrastination, the tendency to put off until later what you can do right away. Pre-crastination is the tendency to do too soon what might be better done later.

    2017, David A. Rosenbaum, Knowing Hands: The Cognitive Psychology of Manual Control, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 234

    It is foreseeable that if we do not enjoy the process involved in completing a task, we will choose procrastination or precrastination to minimize the time we need to spend to do a task.

    2017, Wasif Haq, Interpreting Procrastination; Key to Success, Happiness and Wellness, Lulu Press, Inc, →ISBN, page 81

    The precrastination effect is the finding that individuals complete actions earlier to "get it out of the way" (Rosenbaum, Gong, & Potts, 2014). In the current study, we tested precrastination with a prospective memory (PM) paradigm to determine if this phenomenon generalizes to PM tasks that can be completed at a time chosen by the participant.

    2018, Rachel VonderHaar, “Pre-Crastination Effects in a Prospective Memory Task”, in Illinois State University Research Symposium, volume 155

Origin

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with precrastination

All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

precrastination. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/precrastination

MLA

“precrastination.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/precrastination. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “precrastination,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/precrastination.

Source: precrastination on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.