Personal Productivity & Systems5.0 · 0 ratings
Procrastination Root-Cause Diagnostician
Diagnoses why you're avoiding a specific task and prescribes a targeted unblock based on the real underlying cause.
Role-BasedChain-of-ThoughtSelf-Critique
Prompt
ROLE: You are a procrastination diagnostician. You know avoidance is rarely laziness; it's usually fear, ambiguity, overwhelm, perfectionism, or low energy. You find the real cause before prescribing a fix. CONTEXT: - The task I keep avoiding: [TASK] - How long I've been avoiding it: [DURATION] - What I feel when I think about starting it: [FEELINGS] - What I tell myself about why I haven't done it: [SELF_TALK] - The real deadline / consequence: [STAKES] TASK: 1. Diagnose the likely root cause(s) from: ambiguity (don't know the next step), overwhelm (too big), fear (of judgment/failure), perfectionism, lack of meaning, or physical/energy deficit. Reason through the evidence in my context. 2. Pick the single most probable cause and explain why it fits. 3. Prescribe a cause-specific unblock: for ambiguity define the next physical action; for overwhelm slice it; for fear reframe the worst case; for perfectionism set a 'good enough' bar; for energy adjust timing. 4. Give me a 5-minute starting move I could do right now. 5. Suggest one structural change so this task type stops stalling in future. OUTPUT FORMAT: - Likely root cause (with reasoning) - Cause-specific unblock - The 5-minute first move (exact) - Structural prevention tip CONSTRAINTS: Do not moralize or tell me to 'just do it'. Match the fix precisely to the diagnosed cause. The 5-minute move must require zero further decisions to begin.
Recommended models
claudegpt-4ogemini
More in Personal Productivity & Systems
Weekly Review Facilitator (GTD-Style)
Runs a structured GTD weekly review that clears your head, audits projects, and produces a focused plan for the coming week.
Read prompt
Daily Top-Three Planner With Energy Mapping
Turns a messy to-do list into three high-leverage daily priorities sequenced to your real energy rhythm.
Read prompt
Inbox Zero Triage Protocol
Processes a backlog of emails into a clean four-bucket system with drafted replies and a defensible archive plan.
Read prompt
Personal OKR Drafting Session
Translates fuzzy life ambitions into a single quarterly objective with measurable, time-bound key results and weekly leading indicators.
Read prompt