Procrastination vs. triage
I have supposedly been writing a thesis introduction for the last month. Its current form consists of a couple incomplete outline versions, a stack of rumpled papers with notes I can no longer decipher, and dozens of text files filled with notes that I can decipher but that don't make any sense (that's the magic of typesetting, folks). I've written perhaps two out seven sections; the whole intro has to be done ten days from now.
While I was home for xmas, I had a long conversation with my mother about the fine distinction between triage, yak-shaving, and procrastination. We were particularly discussing the idea of using physical work (say, cleaning the bathroom) as a stalling tactic for mental work such as writing a paper.
Mom asserts that the concept of procrastination is basically a white-collar disease, born of a mindset where you have one thing to do and it keeps being Clearly Most Important for many consecutive attention spans, ensuring you'll get sick of working on it well before it's done. My mother is definitively not white-collar (she proudly reports her occupation to the IRS as "peasant") and maintains that in the real world you expect to be choosing between several important tasks, meaning it's usually okay to decide that it's time to go give some attention to thing B now.
I wasn't entirely convinced, and I pointed out that my academic work (a white-collar activity if ever there was one) usually involves a healthy dose of triage and priority-juggling just like her gardening does. Well... this month it was just me and the thesis staring each other down, and the urge to go clean the bathroom has been getting stronger by the day. I guess Mom was right again.