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Comment by slavik81 | Hacker News Reader

When you procrastinate on mopping the floor or mowing the lawn, you're making a choice to live with dirtier floors or longer grass in exchange for more time to spend on other things. Some of that work actually goes away forever when you procrastinate. It's not like you mow the grass twice to make up for missing a week!

Perhaps the difficult emotion that 'lazy' people are avoiding is admitting to themselves that they're ok making that trade-off.

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> Perhaps the difficult emotion that 'lazy' people are avoiding is admitting to themselves that they're ok making that trade-off.

I don't think it's that simple. During low periods, I let plates/wrappers/leftovers pile in the dishwasher, in the sink, on the sides, and in trash bags. The result is that when I need to eat, I clean a single dish, make room (more piling), and make a trivial meal.

The pending cleaning grows, yet I avoid doing it, live in filth and avoid cooking.

I'd be better putting a trash bag in, putting the wrappers/food in the bin, and using my dishwasher to batch clean, rather than JIT clean by hand. But I don't.

That's a problem, not a conscious trade off.

The worst thing is when you put something off, like a project at work, and then it gets cancelled. That's the type of positive reinforcement that leads to even more procrastiantion. :-)

Sometimes the best action is inaction?

Not unless it got cancelled because you procrastinated on it, and your superiors decided to cut the loss.

> The first week after getting an assignment is called 'The Wally Period.' Never do work during the Wally period because most tasks become unnecessary within seven days.

https://dilbert.com/strip/2002-02-27

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