Design the Slope

Structured procrastination only works if your list has the right slope of difficulty. The decoy at the top must feel genuinely worse than everything below it. The rest should step down gradually, from real-but-manageable work to quick, almost effortless wins.

Why the slope matters: avoidance always flows downhill. If your second task is nearly as painful as the first, you will dodge both and end up doing nothing. A steep enough drop guarantees there is always something easier — and useful — to escape into.