I’d be overwhelmed, but it’s just one more thing to do

Of all the reasons for procrastination, here’s the one that makes the least sense to me.

When people put off tasks by saying, it’s just one more thing to do.

Have you ever said this to yourself? It’s the epitome of overwhelm. You feel mentally and emotionally burdened by a long list of tasks, and adding another feels like it might tip you over the edge.

It’s the perfect story. Labeling an activity as just one more thing to do is how you compartmentalize. That framing rationalizes your procrastination because it feels like you’re protecting yourself. Nobody is going to challenge that narrative.

But the fundamental flaw in this sentiment is, it fosters a mindset of avoidance and resistance. Every time we say it, we reinforce our sense of victimhood. Like we’re at the mercy of an endless stream of tasks. They act as if all these obligations cosmically forced themselves onto their to do lists, and now they are helplessly stuck with them. Why even bother starting? It’s just one more thing, and I’ll never catch up.

Well sure, not with that attitude you won’t.

Engaging in all or nothing thinking is a recipe for inaction. If you view all tasks as equally draining or unenjoyable, then yes, you’ll never get out from under the pile.

My question is, are people resistant to the nature of the task itself, or their crappy framing of it?

See, maybe that item on your to do list isn’t genuinely difficult. It simply feels burdensome because it’s being lumped into an overwhelming pile of one more thing to do. In actuality, it would take less than five minutes to do, and then you’d be done.

Einstein’s theory of relativity comes to mind. He found that time is not fixed, but experienced differently depending on the observer’s relative position.

For example, imagine you’re standing still on the grass, and holding a tennis ball. From your perspective, the ball is not moving. It’s just sitting there in your hand, and it feels easy to manage, right? But now imagine someone else is zooming by in a car going fifty miles an hour, watching you hold that tennis ball. From the person in the car’s perspective, your ball appears to be moving along with you, because everything in their field of vision is moving with respect to them.

That’s relativity. The tennis ball appears to be stationary or moving, depending on whether you’re standing still, or speeding by.

Same law applies to productivity. A task itself doesn’t change; it’s how you perceive it that determines whether it feels manageable or overwhelming.

Change your frame of reference, change your experience of it.

Game, set, match.