procrasturbation
Funny comment on Ernie’s post about trying to unplug:
Procrasturbation, n. – Wasting time by doing a less onerous task. Particularly popular with freelancers and those who “work from home”. Example: rather than doing my taxes, i decided to finally do last year’s spring cleaning.
This got me thinking about my favorite ways to procrasturbate from particular things—I tend to answer my email backlog when I don’t want to work (but would feel too guilty browsing Flickr or Facebook), and when I don’t want to put away the clothes on my floor I usually take the trash out and sort the recycling. Actually, I’ve already worked out how to make procrasturbation work for me: I hate running so much that getting a treadmill would probably drastically improve both my productivity and my room’s tidiness. Alas, no space in my old school tenement apartment…
Very interesting. I work from home as well, and often find myself doing laundry or mopping the kitchen floor… usually when I am trying to think through a problem or situation. It forces me not to hyper-focus on the issue… although sometimes I find myself doing those tasks instead of a mundane task on my list… just didn’t know there was a term for it. Kudos!
Working from home is weird. I love it, but I often hit periods of ultra-extreme lethargy, and it seems like I can’t do anything… even sweep the kitchen floor… which is hardly onerous. Then energy levels, or motivation, return and I’m working until like 1 or 2 am. 🙂