Procrastination often isn’t laziness. It’s fear wearing sweatpants.

Delay usually gets diagnosed as a character flaw when it is closer to a protective reflex. You are not avoiding the task; you are avoiding finding out whether you can do it, or whether it will be judged, or whether it will be hard in a way you cannot handle. Calling that laziness hides the actual problem.

When you notice yourself circling something, ask what the unpleasant discovery would be if you started. Naming it often shrinks it. Then do fifteen minutes of the worst part first, because the dread is almost always heavier than the doing.