Imagine a widget factory where you get to leave after you’re done making your widgets for the day. Assuming that you don’t like spending time in the factory, the best working strategy here would be to finish the widgets as quickly as possible so you can get out of work and do whatever it is you prefer to do with your time. Now instead of letting you leave as soon as you’re done, we make you stay from 9 to 5 even if you’ve done making your share of widgets. If you’re used to getting your widgets done by morning and don’t want to look like you’re slacking off the whole day, the best strategy then is to add some slack in between widget making. So you work a little, laze a little and repeat that cycle until your time is up. What if I told you that we can’t really measure how many widgets you’ve made and will only measure them once a year? The best strategy in this case is would be to do even less work and spend more time doing other things.

Procrastination isn’t a problem. Its the best solution we’ve come up with so far.