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Why You Procrastinate on the Things That Matter Most

With Byron McCaughey · 17 February 2026

In this episode of In Session with Byron, psychologist Byron McCaughey shares a fresh, compassionate perspective on procrastination, based on hundreds of sessions with founders and coaches. Often, we avoid important tasks not because we don't care - but because we're protecting ourselves from the emotions those tasks might stir up: fear of failure, disappointment, judgment. Learn why procrastination is often a sign of psychological self-protection, how to reframe avoidance as an opportunity to teach your mind you're safe, and a simple mindset shift to start taking action on the things that matter. Every time you take action despite the fear, you show your mind there's nothing to run from - and over time, the volume of avoidance quiets down.

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Transcript

Procrastination. This one comes up loads in my sessions with entrepreneurs.

Now, we often think about procrastination as some kind of laziness, but actually I think about procrastination as a protective mechanism of your mind. When we're avoiding doing something - like having that difficult conversation, or making that sales call, or posting that LinkedIn article - it's actually our mind protecting us from the potential emotional outcome that could come from that task. It might be disappointment that nobody is liking your article, or a bad result with the sales meeting - that feeling of failure. Our mind is just doing what it thinks is right by protecting us.

But the problem is that in that protective behaviour, we end up not doing the things that are important to us. So what I tell the entrepreneurs I work with is to recognise that every time we can do the thing that we might be avoiding, we show ourselves - we show our mind - that we don't need to be afraid.

And in doing that, the loudness of the procrastination - the loudness of the thoughts that make you avoid a certain task - starts to decrease a little bit, as our mind recognises that we don't need to be afraid of the outcome, that we'll be okay. In that way, you're able to do the tasks that are important to you, that are aligned with your values, and that support you to achieve the things you want to achieve.

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