Productive procrastination¹ means avoiding what really needs doing by doing tasks that you would otherwise put off such as the laundry, washing your car, the dishes, organizing files on the computer, etc. When all is said and done, your room is clean, your laundry is folded -- but you haven't started your English paper.

Productive procrastination（有效拖延）指为了逃避真正需要做的某件事情而让自己忙于一些一直懒得去做的事情，比如洗衣服、洗车、刷碗、整理电脑里的文件等等。结果就是，等要说的都说了，要做的都做完了，房间也打扫干净了，衣服也叠好了，就剩下英语作文还没写呢。

 

Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task which needs to be accomplished². It is the practice of doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, or carrying out less urgent tasks instead of more urgent ones, thus putting off impending³ tasks to a later time.

 “拖延症”就是避免去做那些需要完成的任务，通常的表现是，先做喜欢的事情或者不太着急的事情，不太喜欢的和比较着急的事情靠后，这样一来，等着完成的任务就要延后了。