I think this is clearly correct. The intractable problem I run into, however, is that the procrastination is at its worst when I do not have the time to tend to the feeling. That quickly spirals into an emotional flashback of past times when procrastination caused me harm, compounded with shame for not being able to overcome this problem, and a vicious inner-critic response to get back to work. The only thing I've found that works is a prolonged bit of tending to the feeling (meditation reflection, grieving, reading, etc.) that is functionally the same as procrastination: time taken away from an incredibly urgent task. More and more, I feel like the only answer is I'm not equipped to handle stressful tasks, and I have to give up and just lead a less stressful (i.e. less meaningful and challenging) life.

@Trinley Goldenberg I agree with "slow is smooth, and smooth is fast." I suppose the problem is when there literally is not enough time to do something correctly. In times like those, I find "smooth and slow" to be counterproductive coping, working at a pace that's basically in denial about the situation.

Hello, friends! I'm a lawyer who, for my entire adolescent and adult life, has been in an overwork -> procrastination -> burnout cycle. The way I was raised, I learned to be a perfectionist and to suck it up (repress feelings) and work until there was no work left. Obviously, that's a recipe to never stop working. And so I've struggled with very, very bad procrastination and toxic shame. Despite my ostensible success (I have more or less arrived at the career I was always aiming for) I've always felt like I was dangerously close to failing spectacularly. Even worse, overcoming this failing has become my white whale, and I now see that I'm in a career that exposes me to this demon over and over again. I've been in talk therapy for about 7 years, with little to no progress. Cognitive-behavioral therapy taught me all of the correct lessons. (E.g. procrastination is not laziness, it is a defense mechanism against overwhelming exhaustion, anxiety, fear, criticism, etc.) But failure to implement these lessons and improve just made my inner critic angrier and angrier. Until recently, when I was meditating regularly and had an "awakening" while reading Alan Watts. I finally understood that ideas are just words, and words are just signifiers of reality, not reality itself. To understand the truth, I must leave thoughts and pay attention to the present. This was a bit of a skeleton key. I became motivated to apply childlike beginners mind to my daily struggles. But it’s hard, I’m still falling into the same traps. Which is what brings me here. I get the sense this is a likeminded place for people looking for a practical approach, learning from others who have "been there before" and, through careful phenomenological attention, learning where the traps lie.