Thanks, that's interesting. [And hi! I dropped out of a degree too :-)] Did you mean only “when trying to figure out how to do something…” as you said, or do yo

Thanks, that's interesting. [And hi! I dropped out of a degree too :-)] Did you mean only “when trying to figure out how to do something…” as you said, or do you include even “when trying to do something”? Because not experiencing anxiety or frustration in the former is something I can manage too (a challenge is always fun, especially when it's a purely cognitive task like figuring something out), but the problem arises when one thinks one is in the latter situation. To take the example from the OP, “do your taxes” is probably something that I have done a few times before: so I don't think of it as something to figure out how to do. (Maybe the fact that I'm so unsuccessful every year at doing it until the last minute means that I really do need to figure out how to do it, but it doesn't seem that way: it seems that I know roughly what it involves.) The mental model is that I'm just going to sit down for a few hours to “do my taxes”, and do all the things it usually involves. And it causes dread, avoidance, resistance. And the OP's suggested fix, the one you're commenting about, of replacing it in one's todo list with things like “gather bank statements” (or something smaller and concrete like that) seems to help immensely. Does this not fit your experience? (Maybe not with doing taxes, but with some dreaded task… or is there usually nothing you dread?)