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The hardest kind of delaying to catch is the useful kind. You clear the inbox, sort the cupboard, answer three messages, and all of it is real work, and none of it is the thing.
It feels virtuous, which is why it survives so long. A quick test at the end of the day: is the thing I least wanted to do any closer than it was this morning? If the answer is no for a third day running, put fifteen minutes of the big task before the small ones tomorrow, and let it be a bad fifteen minutes.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Do not say of anything, I will do that tomorrow (Quran 18:23). The sentence is named exactly, even on days that were full of other good things.
وَلَا تَقُولَنَّ لِشَاْيۡءٍ إِنِّي فَاعِلࣱ ذَٰلِكَ غَدًا
do not say of anything, ‘I will do that tomorrow,’
Qur’an 18:23read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A bibliometric analysis of the procrastination literature maps how much has been published and where the field is heading. It is worth saying that this is a map of the research rather than a finding about what helps, and this productive kind of delay has not been singled out for much study at all.
Yan B, Zhang X. (2022). What Research Has Been Conducted on Procrastination? Evidence From a Systematical Bibliometric Analysis.. Frontiers in psychology doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Work that earns you credit hides the work you are avoiding.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
Sometimes the last minute really does produce your best work. Often it produces your worst, and those nights are much easier to forget.
A decision that is barely tipped is still a decision. If one side is ahead by a hair, that is your answer, and you are allowed to take it.
Make the first move small enough to be almost silly. Open the document and type the date. Put the trainers by the door. Everything after that is cheaper.