I think it’s fun and funny to joke about delaying a task you dread only to have it take far less time than you expect. I just posted about that the other day.

But the truth is, problem solving is hard cognitive work and all that time in dread was my brain wrestling with the problem on some background cycles.

If I got started right away, the task would be tedious and hard, and I may not come to an answer I’m comfortable with. The right time to solve a problem is when it comes surprisingly easy and feels like the “right” way to do something.

In truth, I celebrate that I am getting better at identifying the right time and conditions to sit and work on a problem and seeing an elegant solution unfold quickly.

What I am struggling with is not feeling so bad during the waiting period when I haven’t quite figured out what to do yet.