This morning | got up early to do everything | had to do; pending work had accumulated over the last few days. | sat in my office willing to work, but I noticed that my desk was dirty and | realised | work better on a clean and tidy desk. But then | felt hungry, so | went to the kitchen to have a quick snack, convinced this would allow me to work better. It turned out that the refrigerator was almost empty so | had to go the closest supermarket. Once there, | told myself that it would be efficient to buy for the whole week because then | would not have to worry about shopping for food again and | could get all that pending work done. Upon arriving home, | cooked some food and washed the dishes to free myself up and get to work, First though, | quickly ran to the hardware store to find some grease to spray my chair so | would not get distracted by it squeaking while | concentrated on my work, Back home, | watched a little TV. “Today I will go to bed early and sleep well so that | can get up early and set to work.” It is surprising that every single semester, my students arrive with their clean notebooks, convinced that they will work hard and do all their pre-lecture exercises. But at the end of the semester, students fail the course and make up excuses about relatives who have died and illnesses they have had. All sorts of things that always occur at the end of the semester. The question is, why don't they learn? Why do they have this problem? A couple of years ago | offered the students in one of my classes deal. On the first day of the course | told them the deal: "you have three assignments this semester, and you can decide when you deliver them to me”, but | told the other class, that was studying the same subject, something different: "you have three assignments this semester and you must deliver them before these dates. Set respectively at weeks four, eight and twelve". Thus, | offered the first group freedom to choose their delivery dates, while the second class was subject to a strict dictatorial treatment where they had no options. | would have thought flexibility would be best for any student. Students know that classes end on the 2nd May and might think: "I have to deliver everything on the 2nd May; if | have time during the semester, Ill start working on it beforehand and can deliver earlier.” Which class do you think got better grades? Ifyou procrastinate, you will leave it for another time or not do it at all, At the end of the semester, after comparing the two methods, | discovered that the class who had set deadlines received the best grades. Most students in the class with flexible deadlines began working on their assignments on the 1st May, they did not sleep for twenty-four hours and delivered bad assignments. What do these results suggest? Well, first, that students succumb to laziness (no surprises there) and, secondly, greatly restricting their freedom is the best cure for this neglect. None of them came up to me and said: "Please, Professor, give me shorter deadlines.” They do not consider that an option.| ev Eduard Punset o I think this is a very hopeful message: if we can exploit these types of tools for society: to save money, for better health, to eat better, people may actually use them.