Delayed Echoes

On procrastination and how to think about the substitute activities that we do instead of dong work:

When you procrastinate, you’re probably not procrastinating because of the pain of working, because on a moment-to-moment basis, being in the middle of doing the work is usually less painful than being in the middle of procrastinating.

That is pretty useful to remember. And another tidbit:

I’m starting to think that […] you do not regain mental energy from [procrastination.  Success and happiness cause you to regain willpower; what you need to heal your mind from any damage sustained by working is not inactivity, but reliably solvable problems which reliably deliver experienced jolts of positive reinforcement.

I think this is a pretty useful insight - when compelled to procrastinate, what you choose to do can greatly affect whether you manage to get actual work done later.