Yak Shaving
The long chain of fiddly, unrelated-looking sub-tasks you must complete before you can do the thing you actually sat down to do.
Full definition of Yak Shaving →:: COMPARE ::
Yak shavingvsProcrastination
The short answer
Procrastination is doing something else INSTEAD. Yak shaving is doing something else BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO. The sub-tasks genuinely block the main task — they just look absurd from outside, and increasingly absurd from inside.
Side by side
| Aspect | Yak shaving | Procrastination |
|---|---|---|
| Blocks the real task | Genuinely | No |
| Avoidable | No | Yes |
| Looks identical from outside | Yes | Yes |
| Ends | Eventually | When you decide |
What each one means
Procrastination
The contrast above sets out how Procrastination differs from Yak Shaving on the points that actually matter.