Sometimes I will actually clean stuff just to avoid working on something I hate more, and it's actually almost fun. So this is definitely true from my experience.

It's also amazing what you'll get done when the power is out or you don't have internet, but that's almost impossible for me nowadays thanks to my smartphone.

Reminds me of this well-written article/confession: http://chronicle.com/article/How-to-ProcrastinateStill/93959

When I was still in college, nothing got me more motivated to clean my apartment than having that big project that I needed to work on.