Make it look like you making progress by adding easy items.

Make to do list. Check

If I put it off this long it must not be that important.

I have a digital to do list. When it gets from “this is way too big” to “I have to scroll two full pages”, I move entries to a secondary to do list that I look at like never. I should call that one the “don’t list”.

This is an effective strategy for me because of how much I dislike clutter and leaving things unfinished. One of the cases where the end result matters more than the method used to achieve it.