Although it is widely assumed that procrastination is counterproductive, delaying task progress may have hidden benefits for creativity. Drawing on theories of incubation, we propose that moderate procrastination can foster creativity when employees have the intrinsic motivation and opportunity to generate new ideas. In two experiments in the United States, we tempted participants to engage in varying degrees of procrastination by making different numbers of funny YouTube videos easily accessible while they were supposed to be solving business problems. Participants generated more creative ideas in the moderate rather than low or high procrastination conditions. This curvilinear effect was partially mediated by problem restructuring and the activation of new knowledge. We constructively replicated and extended the curvilinear effect in a field study with Korean employees: procrastination predicted lower task efficiency but had an inverted-U-shaped relationship with creativity. Employees who procrastinated moderately received higher creativity ratings from their supervisors than employees who procrastinated more or less, provided that intrinsic motivation or creative requirement was high. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for time management, creativity, and motivation in organizations.

中文翻译：

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当推迟工作有回报时：拖延和创造力之间的曲线关系

尽管人们普遍认为拖延会适得其反，但延迟任务进度可能对创造力有隐藏的好处。借鉴孵化理论，我们提出，当员工具有产生新想法的内在动力和机会时，适度的拖延可以培养创造力。在美国的两个实验中，我们通过让不同数量的有趣 YouTube 视频在他们应该解决业务问题的同时易于访问来诱使参与者进行不同程度的拖延。参与者在中等而不是低或高拖延条件下产生了更多的创意。这种曲线效应部分是由问题重组和新知识的激活所介导的。我们在与韩国员工的实地研究中建设性地复制和扩展了曲线效应：拖延预测较低的任务效率，但与创造力呈倒 U 形关系。如果内在动机或创造性要求很高，那么适度拖延的员工从上司那里得到的创造力评分高于或多或少拖延的员工。我们讨论了组织中时间管理、创造力和动机的理论和实践意义。前提是内在动机或创造性要求很高。我们讨论了组织中时间管理、创造力和动机的理论和实践意义。前提是内在动机或创造性要求很高。我们讨论了组织中时间管理、创造力和动机的理论和实践意义。