Pre-crastination: wasting effort on a task that can be done with less work if you had started later - after first thinking about the best way to achieve your goal.
It’s the opposite of overthinking-induced procrastination.
Example from algorithms to live by:
One of the buckets was right next to the participant; the other was partway down the hall. To the experimenters’ surprise, people immediately picked up the bucket near them and lugged it all the way down—passing the other bucket on the way, which they could have carried a fraction of the distance.
This phenomenon highlights the importance of planning and the consequence of impatience/a fear of doing nothing/the compulsive need to be productive all the time.
Direction > effort. Gain clarity.
When does avoiding precrastination become procrastination? Wouldn’t we all be better off if we took a lot of time off to learn and think about 1) what the most important problems to solve are, and 2) what are the best ways to solve them?