“Just 30 minutes,” I told myself.
I didn’t feel ready to start work yet, so I gave myself permission to catch up with my favorite websites first. But not too long, because there was work to do.
When the timer chimed I was in the middle of something interesting, so I reset the timer for another half-hour without a thought.
As the timer moved closer to zero, now for the second time, I felt a growing sense of dread. I didn’t want to procrastinate the whole morning away, but then again, I had already wasted an hour. It would be easier to switch gears and get started in the afternoon, I rationalized. And so I turned the timer off with a compulsive swipe of my finger—acting before my brain even had time to register the decision….