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by toddmorey·15y ago·view on hn ↗
I'm not lazy, I'm not too proud to do mundane things, and I don't feel others control my life. (How would that last perspective explain procrastinating on a personal project like a painting?) I didn't understand procrastination until I understood it from this perspective (and I imagine a lot of the folks on HN are similar): I procrastinate because I'm a perfectionist. If it's not finished, it can't be judged. There's more I can tweak! Once something is turned in, published, or launched, it stands as an example of my best effort. It wears my name. And that scares the hell out of me.
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My tendency for perfectionism also contributes but for an entirely different reason; I often feel it's hard to motivate my self because of the increased effort yielding diminishing returns. Yet I know once I get started the perfectionist can take over and I end up burning a lot of time with not much to show for it.

In many ways I sympathise with the OP's point of view to a large extent, while don't really understand yours. That makes me wonder if there's some even more fundamental reason that causes procrastination or whether it can be just different things for different people.