My middle school math teacher told us that mathematicians are very lazy. That's why they prefer short clever proofs over longer brute force proofs.

I tend to be on a different flip side of this, but it's the same idea. I tend to procrastinate on projects that I know need to get done eventually. The result, though, is that once the deadline is close enough, I focus on the task until it's done and ultimately do a better job in less time.