Saying “I’ll do it later” is really deciding to do it tired.

Postponing does not remove the task, it just assigns it to a worse version of you. The you at eleven at night has less patience, less focus and no interest in doing it well. What felt like buying time was really choosing the conditions, and you chose the bad ones.

When something small appears and you feel like pushing it, check how long it would really take. Anything under about five minutes is cheaper now than it will ever be again. For the bigger things, put the first ten minutes somewhere early in the day.