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It's like going into a very cold lake when you've decided you're going to go swimming in it.

This is how one famous writer describes procrastination.

You put your foot in, you take it out, you put it in again, it's still too cold.

You think, am I going to do this or not?

Am I really going to do this?

No, yes.

No, yes.

That goes on for a while.

If you're going to do it, you run in screaming.

So says Margaret Atwood.

She's best known as the acclaimed author of The Handmaid's Tale and has sold many millions of books.

But you might not know that she's also a self-proclaimed world expert on procrastination.

Yeah, yeah, I've racked up, you know, years and years of it.

Because Margaret doesn't do anything halfway.

If you're going to do something, you might as well be good at it, right?

I'd hate to be a failed procrastinator.

She can procrastinate anywhere with the greatest of ease.

At home, in a coffee shop, even up in the air.

I think it's always more fun to watch movies on planes than to work.

A film called Captain Underpants was on the menu.

So I was watching Captain Underpants, which well repaid my time.

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