One aspect of my day job is to coach people on how to prioritise tasks on a project. The optimal strategy typically is whats called "weighted shortest job first" . The weighting factor being cost of delay.

It actually explains why people leave things to the last minute: at that point the cost of delay, and thus the return on invested effort, is highest.

Its an example of where an instinctive approach seems initially at odds with the simple "logic" of the situation, yet actually turns out to be spot on when you dig a bit deeper.