Task paralysis and procrastination - why it's so hard to get sh*t done

All In The Mind

ABC

Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Science

4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Five years of unpaid taxes. Homework handed in on the last day of an extension. Some people are champion procrastinators.

Why? And what does task paralysis (sometimes called ADHD paralysis) have to do with it?

Today: the personality traits that make you more prone to procrastination, the types of tasks we're most likely to put off, and what to do if your to-do list sends you into fight-or-flight mode.

You can binge more episodes of the All in the Mind podcast with journalist and presenter Sana Qadar on the ABC Listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.

Guests:

EvaHigh school student

Dr Catherine HoulihanClinical psychologistSenior lecturer in clinical psychologyDirector of the UniSC Psychology ClinicUniversity of the Sunshine Coast

Credits:

Presenter/producer: Sana Qadar
Producer: Rose Kerr
Senior producer: James Bullen
Sound engineer: Simon Branthwaite

More information:

The skills supercommunicators use, which you can learn too

Outwardly impressive, losing it on the inside? The cognitive distortions of a high achiever

Why do I procrastinate? And can I do anything about it?

Fighting for focus in the age of distraction

Transcript

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0:00.0	ABC Listen, Podcasts, Radio, News, Music and more.
0:07.9	I'm David Marr, host of Late Night Live on ABC Radio National, where we're still doing
0:13.1	what we've done for nearly 40 years, examining what really matters in this changing world.
0:18.7	It's a power grab in advance.
0:21.7	And it felt fugitive, an alternative.
0:24.8	And people were willing to take risks.
0:27.2	Hear it now with four brand new episodes each week on the ABC Listen app.
0:35.9	So I have two tasks. There's a science assignment and there's a house assignment. The science one is a write-up for like an experiment we did. And that is due at the end of the term, which is in two days. Oh my God. Soon. Yeah. I haven't started it yet. Oh no. Are you freaking out?
0:55.0	Yeah.
0:56.0	Oh my goodness.
0:57.0	What are you going to do?
0:59.0	Um, probably try and speed around it.
1:02.0	Probably ask the teacher for an extension.
1:05.0	You know, it's not often at the ABC that we hear from 13-year-olds telling us they love a show.
1:14.0	Certainly not at Radio National, it's never happened on All in the Mind.
1:17.8	So what are 13-year-old messages to say they are a big fan?
1:21.8	You notice.
1:22.7	I'm Eva. I am 13 years old and I am a student in high school.
1:27.8	Evo wrote in not just to tell us she loved us, thank you Evo, but also to describe a feeling
1:33.4	she's been having more frequently.
1:36.3	And so why have you not done the science report yet?
1:39.6	Like what is your thinking whenever you think about it?
	...

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