"I don't have time for planning!"
"I only have an hour, I have to jump right in!"
"Ugh I would love to have a morning/work routine but I just don't have time for it!"
and listen, I get it. A lot of the tools we talk about in the Thrive PhD universe - goal setting! planning! time management! scheduling! freewriting! - take time to do, and they take time to see the benefits. No one sits down to do a monthly goal planning session and says "yes, cool, got it, all the work done for the month!".
And all of that extra work - the planning, the reflecting, the learning of skills, the easing into it, and shutting it down - it is objectively time that you are not "in the project." Freewriting about your sources and your argument is not the same as writing the chapter. Planning out your schedule for the week is not the same as doing the work.
But, as a coach, here's a pattern I see a lot:
Time for work gets reduced and/or deadline pressure mounts
Arrive for a work session and feel huge pressure to "get into it right away" and "not waste time"
Get flustered, frustrated, or distracted because you're trying to start right away
End up needing to repeat work, or fall into a Twitter hole, or just generally amp up the sticky feelings and work less efficiently
But, the warm up work - deciding what to work on, making a plan, checking in with yourself about how its going, taking a few minutes to do a few deep breaths and clean your desk off - that all helps you transition into the work more quickly, and focus more clearly once you get there. You might not have a whole pom to do freewriting, or two hours a week to plan and journal and reflect - but a little bit of warm up time (and/or cool down time afterwards, to wrap up and make notes) is NOT procrastination. It's part of the work. Write a few tasks on a post it note - scribble a few notes about what you were thinking about when you finished. It all helps work a little bit more on purpose, and working on purpose is always going to feel a little bit more grounded and effective.
We don't expect athletes to run a marathon without some stretching and a more gentle paced few miles. We know that warming up helps get the body and the brain in the same place - so pay attention to that voice that says you need some time to sync up.