Having kids is pretty good for curing procrastination. The only time to plant a tree is these three minutes right now.

I think that procrastination is often a way of managing anxiety around perfectionism. Although that doesn't apply to the household chores I procrastinate on. I just never do them.

I think there's an element of perfectionism involved when just getting back to presentable throughout the house will take a major effort you don't want to prioritise, but then you don't even bother to take a little time to make incremental progress. Mansplaining for a friend...

re: 1

This has absolutely proved true for me. I used to be a terrible procrastinator. Now that between work -- which is much more intense than when I worked for a university -- and childcare, I literally have no time, that's really not true any more. The old adage that if you need something done, ask a busy person, has turned out to be correct.

It sucks, though.

I think you stole my line.

Is tomorrow the third best time to plane a tree or do you need to wait another 20 years?

It's a sine function.

What's the worst time to plant a tree?

Maybe while you're in a plane?

That works fine.

I'm not sure if the OP or #2 is more true for me, but both of them have something to them.

(For me, I'm also often procrastinating writing, because I deeply hate how the words on the page fail to capture what I had in my head)

I procrastinate because doing shit sucks.

I think there's an element of perfectionism involved when just getting back to presentable throughout the house will take a major effort you don't want to prioritise, but then you don't even bother to take a little time to make incremental progress.

Sometimes I think that I don't even know how to break big household chores into incremental mini-tasks. Other times I suspect that I would find the mini-tasks have to maintained too frequently for my laziness, the underlying problem.

I have been working from home since mid-March. I'm supposed to go back to in-person teaching next month. So THIS MORNING was the time I was able to get it together to set up a home office. Procrastination at its finest.

(And I suspect it's because my subconscious went from wishing it would end to fearing it would end. But I'm not sure what that says about me.)

Yes this. Insightful. And for me I know the realization of the fucking up will dominate my thinking as I start the task. And then often doubly so as I rush to finish and realize that it could have been done well if I had given it adequate time.

Actually for a year or so when I sort of "made" what became my later career and moved up to greater responsibility, I was extremely prompt at doing things getting into work usually by 6* and proactively returning emails and phone calls and all kinds of shit. What a monster. (It didn't last.)

*In part because I had a passive-aggressive boss who got in early and was pretty much unavailable after 7 and whom I often had need to speak with. Other trick was that he was a smoker and I was willing to go on smoke breaks with him although I did not smoke. A later (much better) boss was also a smoker and I had nearly all of my productive talks with him on his breaks. Both were so much more relaxed and willing to consider alternative ideas on those breaks.

1:I find it adds a different kind of stress for creative work, because I need to be either 100% productive as a writer or 100% on as a mom, and it takes a little time to flip the switch.

I once tried that saying about the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and 2nd best is today.

A friend then thought on this, and then said "that's bullshit. The 2nd best time to plant a tree is 19 years and 364 days ago."

She had a point.

I once tried that saying about the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and 2nd best is today.

A friend then thought on this, and then said "that's bullshit. The 2nd best time to plant a tree is 19 years and 364 days ago."

She had a point.

16 me.

100% of ancient Chinese proverbs are by Zig Ziglar, unless you're in the habit of saying things like "four sides Chu song."

Yes, procrastination is--at least for me--perfectionism and fear of failure. And by starting, you're admitting failure. Getting over it is figuring out how to admit that failure doesn't matter, you shouldn't partake in sunk-cost-fallacy thinking, and anyway, you have intrinsic value beyond what you produce so it's not a big deal if you aren't constantly doing things perfectly. This is all Now Habit stuff.

21: 指鹿為馬

22: Alright, fair, that's one used every day, at least in Japanese.

This is all Now Habit stuff.

That's where I got it from, yes. Jesus, I think this was back in grad school, maybe 15+ years ago. Just keep starting!

Always Be Cstarting.

Apparently most of the Chinese proverbs that sound like Victorian homilies were written by Earl Biggers, author of the Charlie Chan mystery novels, and various other white guys who wrote movie, radio, and TV shows featuring the same character.

Apparently most of the Chinese proverbs that sound like Victorian homilies were written by Earl Biggers, author of the Charlie Chan mystery novels, and various other white guys who wrote movie, radio, and TV shows featuring the same character.

Apparently most of the Chinese proverbs that sound like Victorian homilies were written by Earl Biggers, author of the Charlie Chan mystery novels, and various other white guys who wrote movie, radio, and TV shows featuring the same character.

23: Are you referring to baka? If so, is that solidly the etymology? It whiffs a bit of back-interpretation to match the proverb, and there seem to be several competing explanations, though I don't know how plausible.

I thought baka was Greek.

I guess every culture has invented putting something sweet in layers.

24: Only about ten years ago for me. Still procrastinating. It was right, of course. It turns out that identifying a problem is a necessary but very insufficient part of solving it.

29: I was. Since it's written that way in kanji, I feel like that's good enough to count: even if it's folk etymology, people are using that folk etymology.

Makes sense.

4: Constant deadlines do help, though life can feel like it's turning into a repetitive series of boxes to check.

13: Laziness is my problem too; I know what it'd take to get that last 10%, and I'm unwilling to spend it. Eventually you're compelled -- your counter is covered with dirty dishes, making the cooking more burdensome too, so guess it's time to knock down the handwash pots & pans. And mopping... I go months between, so it's always a long process when I do finally get to it, because the stains have set enough that it takes some soaking or applied strength to get the crud up. For the first week after the mopping, I'm hyper vigilant, sponging up every drip immediately, but eventually it gets ahead of me again.

Sometimes, though, I invent folk reasons to dodge drudgery. Like "it freaks out the cats" when I vacuum... except that as long as they're not in the room, it really doesn't, and it's easy enough to let them out for a loop of the backyard while I run the vacuum through the living room, then drag them back inside.