I don't think it's at all illogical or a trick of the mind that we feel we have less time to do something meaningful when we have another appointment or task co

I don't think it's at all illogical or a trick of the mind that we feel we have less time to do something meaningful when we have another appointment or task coming up. In the hour before my appointment starts I could be looking over some notes from another project, but at the half-hour mark I'm already quite focused on reading-- after which point I will be lost in that work. Consequently, I don't look at my notes because it's likely I'll find that I've gone over the hour mark and I'm late, or that I will have to stop in the middle of an insight and I'll be left feeling a bit muddled and disorganized. Instead, I could probably sit and think about the contents of the appointment itself, which is something I usually do. Or I could check my phone-- which is something I do if there's not much that I could think about before the appointment. There is also often anxiety involved before scheduled tasks, and it can be helpful to distract from that and not do anything "productive" (in the usual sense of the word) in that time, or to try and relax. It may be more helpful to do something to prepare, but sometimes it's not.