Procrastination, a la Robert Benchley

Years ago I read a Robert Benchley piece entitled something like "How to Get Things Done."  It's probably one of the earliest self-help essays!  Although, being a Bob Benchley production, it was not serious.  Essentially, he used the fine art of distraction.  He would have piles of things to do or to write, and by telling himself that one was the most important  task, he would then contrarily make a beeline for the lesser tasks.  It's the reverse psychology of "eat the frog first."  And it's a technique I use every day. 
Writing is a case in point.  Back in the day, when I was writing a paper, I would settle myself on the floor by an end table in the lobby of the Fine Arts building.  I knew everyone passing by, and I would thus have a built-in distraction.  Or, if the traffic was light, I'd go to the practice rooms and find my latest crush object.  And, with these breaks, the paper would get written.
Today, as a solitary nomad, distractions are of the virtual type.  I post a picture and respond to comments.  I send my daily email to the Gang of 4.  I check up on other friends.  I write my blog while waiting for a Tutor.com client to log in.  And eventually I get back to the work at hand, the work that actually pays me something, the commissioned book.

Email letter to B:
You asked about the book I'm writing, and instead of writing it right now I'm writing about it to you!  :)
It’s called Famous Faces and their families. 25 people to research, along with up to 12 people in their family tree. Left hand page has a big illustration of a key event, plus a 150-word bio and two 50-word sidebars. Right-hand side has a family tree with captioned face-medallions and 150-word description of the family. I do the research and words, someone else does the illustrations, using my research (I find pix of people and events), R edits and pulls it all together. It’s her imprint, Wide Eyed books.
I’m enjoying the process, but it’s so hard to distill a complicated life into 150 words. And Cleopatra's family was horrible! How does one write about incest at a 10-year-old reading level? Does one even try?
It's good for me to edit my convoluted syntax into a concise yet engaging text. I get better at it, and wish I could go back and redo some of the first things I wrote at first.  But R is an excellent editor, so they have been fixed en route.
Sadly, some of the people we wanted to write about don't really have family trees we can work with. Slaves, for example, have little by way of documentation, unless you are Alex Haley and can work with the oral history.
Anyway, it's both interesting to do the research and frustrating to condense it all into a few sentences.  Even nonentities can't be summarized adequately in 150 words!  It's a new way of looking at writing and research.
And I'd best get down to it.  This week's writing awaits.