Whenever I set mental deadlines for myself I'm much more likely to get things done. It seems that when my brain queries TimeToGetThisDone(), if I set no mental deadline, it's apt to return "plenty of time" or the due date. Of course, for time management reasons, it's better to get stuff done well before the due date so you have enough time to get everything done (e.g., 3 papers due on the same day). If I set an earlier mental deadline, I'm less apt to procrastinate because "time pressure" is (artificially) increasing.

This doesn't always work though, primarily because it's hard to get the mental deadlines set. It seems that my procrastinate mode won't let my planning mode take over and think about when things should be finished. In fact, I often catch myself thinking "but if I think about when to do stuff, I won't be able to procrastinate..."

I do this with other things too. For example, when I'm about to make an impulse buy, I'll start to think "is this really worth $20 to me?" but then I'll think "I better not do the cost-benefit calculation, because then I won't buy it."

It's as if there are 2 agents battling for control of my brain. Is there a term for this? Does anyone else have this problem? What about a solution?