Completely agree on point 3; fear of success is a big issue when it comes to side projects and the like, or in another form, fear of what the future/task looks

Completely agree on point 3; fear of success is a big issue when it comes to side projects and the like, or in another form, fear of what the future/task looks like once the project is underway. There's also an aspect of enjoying the planning stage more than the execution stage, which is common in "analysis paralysis" type procrastination situations. I'm surprised nobody's mentioned ADD/ADHD yet; continually starting and not following through is a classic behaviour, though procrastination is a slightly different beastie, I can see a relationship here. In that case I would characterise it less as procrastination for your, or the OP's, reasons; and more procrastination because the brain cannot grab on and commit to the task, so it goes and does something (ten things) different instead.