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It is worth telling this apart from the delaying that comes out of fear or out of wanting it perfect, because they want different help. If the task feels fine and you simply cannot get going, work on the start itself: a set time, a smaller first move, someone else in the room. If opening the file makes your chest tighten, that is a different problem and needs a different answer.
Do not say of anything, I will do that tomorrow (Quran 18:23). The sentence is named for what it is, without any verdict passed on the person saying it.
الكهف
وَلَا تَقُولَنَّ لِشَاْيۡءٍ إِنِّي فَاعِلࣱ ذَٰلِكَ غَدًا
do not say of anything, ‘I will do that tomorrow,’
Qur’an 18:23read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A systematic review of ADHD and procrastination describes putting things off as a difficulty with self-regulation that shows up often in ADHD, and it says clearly that the mechanisms behind that link remain unclear. So this is a fair way of understanding your own pattern rather than a proven account of why it happens.
Suriano R. (2026). A systematic review on the association between ADHD and procrastination.. Research in developmental disabilities doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Naming which part actually fails tells you where to put the support.
Next time you tell yourself you will remember it, ask what you would bet on that. A month's rent, for or against. The answer usually arrives before you have finished asking.
Take half a minute and see Thursday night in detail, both versions: the one where you did some of this today, and the one where you did not.
When something does not get written down, go back to that exact moment with curiosity rather than a telling off. What was in your hands, where were you, what did you tell yourself?