When it comes from within, it's hard to see immediately what purpose procrastination serves - but it may serve many. Most procrastinators don't really know how work works. They assume that all really productive people are always in a positive, energetic frame of mind that lets them jump right into piles of paper and quickly do what needs to be done, only emerging when the task is accomplished. On the contrary, motivation follows action instead of the other way around. When we make ourselves face the task ahead of us, it usually isn't as bad as we think, and we begin to feel good about the progress we start making.
Work comes first, and then comes the positive frame of mind.
O ne of the bitter ironies of depression is that depressed people crave connection with other people, while the nature of the disease makes it impossible for them to connect. D epressives must learn to listen to and take care of their bodies. Divorced from feelings, we tend to see ourselves divorced from our bodies as well. It is a way of saying that what I think and feel matters. . . . Depression is not just an illness, but a failure of creativity.