English Dictionary

yak shaving

noun

Any apparently useless activity which, by allowing you to overcome intermediate difficulties, allows you to solve a larger problem.

I spent the whole day yak shaving instead of working on my project.

意味（1）

Any apparently useless activity which, by allowing you to overcome intermediate difficulties, allows you to solve a larger problem.

I was doing a bit of yak shaving this morning, and it looks like it might have paid off.

意味（2）

A less useful activity done consciously or subconsciously to procrastinate about a larger but more useful task.

I looked at a reference manual for my car just to answer one question, but I spent the whole afternoon with my nose buried in it, just yak shaving, and got no work done on the car itself.