I saw a tweet awhile ago, which went something like, “‘I think I deserve a little treat for once’ - me every day.”

I think about that sometimes. Why is it that my reaction to certain inconveniences or annoyances isn’t “I’m glad this doesn’t happen every time!” but rather “Why does this happen every time?” Why do negative experiences stick so much more than positive ones? Why is it so hard to set aside a few minutes for boring or unpleasant tasks—or even for joyful tasks that just demand a little bit of focus, or putting down everything else?

Recently I had this thought, or really just a way of putting something I’ve thought about a lot: convenience raises the cost of inconvenience. Putting off some chore, or doing it less often, makes it harder to do. Not just in the sense that routine maintenance is easier than major repair; in the psychological sense that the appetite grows with the feeding...