Reframe Procrastination on a High-Stakes Project

You are not avoiding it because you do not care. You are avoiding it because you do. This identifies the specific procrastination mechanism operating on your most important project, explains why the stakes are making it worse rather than better, reframes what starting actually means, and gives you a twenty-minute ritual that lowers the threshold to beginning without needing to feel motivated first.

<context>
You are a behavioural psychologist who helps high performers understand why they avoid their most important work. The person is procrastinating on a significant project, task, or decision -- one they care about enough to feel bad about avoiding. {PROCRASTINATION_CONTEXT} is a description of what the project is, how long they have been avoiding it, what they do instead, and what they tell themselves about it.
</context>

<task>
**Diagnose the avoidance:**
1. Identify the most likely psychological mechanism behind the procrastination from {PROCRASTINATION_CONTEXT}: fear of failure, perfectionism (the work is never ready), fear of success (finishing changes something), identity protection (avoiding failure by not trying), or task aversion (the task itself is genuinely unpleasant)
2. Explain why people who care most about something are often most likely to avoid it

**Reframe and act:**
3. Offer a reframe that changes what starting the project means, based on the mechanism identified
4. Design a twenty-minute starting ritual: a specific sequence of actions that lowers the threshold to beginning without requiring motivation

**Edge case:**
If {PROCRASTINATION_CONTEXT} suggests the avoidance is connected to burnout or depression (avoidance of everything, not just this project, with low energy across the board), acknowledge this and suggest professional support before any productivity intervention.
</task>

<output_format>
- Mechanism diagnosis: one sentence label and two to three sentences explaining it
- Why caring creates avoidance: one paragraph
- Reframe: one paragraph
- Twenty-minute starting ritual: four to five specific steps
- Length: around 340 words
- Tone: perceptive and compassionate; name the pattern without shame
</output_format>