Tricking my mind
When I know I have the whole day before me to study or work on a project there is this tendency to fill up the space before getting down to work.
I would start doing the dishes, cleaning up the house, or reading articles, uncounciously prioritizing anything but starting the task at hand. If I think about having to start there is this strange anxiety that takes over me, because my mind pictures all the things that I need to do to start, I need to concentrate, I need to open up my code editor, I need to start researching. My anxiety ramps up and I burn myself out even before starting!
However, if I know I have an appointment later and I will have to leave the house, the limitation of having a finite slot of time gives me a boost of productivity.
There must be at least two coping mechanisms at play here. I know the anxiety comes from the amount of work I know I need to do and due to picturing that mountain of effort in my mind, I get exhausted before doing anything and won't even start. But the other one, the limited slot boosting my focus not sure where it comes from.
My point is, I need to leave in one hour and I managed to scrape some time to think about a data model I need for an app and with the remaining time putting down my reflection here on "paper".