Ignition Friction: Why Some Tasks Feel Harder Than They Are

What’s Really Holding You Back — and How to Overcome It

Ever wonder why sending a simple email can make you want to fake your own death and move to a remote yak farm in Mongolia?

That 5-minute task sits in your inbox for weeks. Meanwhile, you've reorganised your kitchen drawers (colour-coded and arranged by apocalypse survival usefulness), learned conversational Esperanto, and watched a Netflix documentary on the mating habits of Peruvian tree frogs.

Anything to avoid that ONE. SIMPLE. EMAIL.

This isn't next-level procrastination.

It's ignition friction — when starting feels harder than the actual task.

Here's what's really happening in your brain: Your anterior cingulate cortex - the part responsible for error detection - creates a surge of anxiety before you even begin. MIT researchers found this activation happens at the mere thought of certain tasks. Your brain recalls past resistance and primes itself for avoidance.

You're not lazy. Your brain is playing physics with your productivity.

Let’s dive in:

Last year, I began to notice a pattern in my actions.

Financial tasks kept piling up in my backlog. These were simple things. Invoices, expense tracking, basic bookkeeping. Meanwhile, I was solving complex technical problems and managing multiple client projects with ease. The same brain that could architect intricate systems would freeze at basic math.

At first, I blamed prioritisation. "Other tasks are more important," I'd tell myself. But I was wrong.

The Weight of Starting

Every task carries two distinct burdens: cognitive load and emotional weight.

Cognitive load is straightforward: How much mental effort the task requires.

But emotional weight? That's trickier. It's the invisible resistance that makes simple tasks feel impossibly heavy.

A two-line email to a difficult client can carry more emotional weight than a complex project. That's why you'll spend hours doing busy work just to avoid sending it.

The Science of Resistance