David Allen speaks about these quite a bit (check out the 8-episode podcast with Merlin from a few weeks ago). A "Look into?" project is something that involves a first step that you know is going to lead to another set of steps but there is no way to know the contours of the project in their entirety before beginning the project. Thus "Look into caretaking facilities for my aging parents" is the first step of a look into project one can't know the entire contours of in advance before looking into it. The project needs more concretes that provide the 'teeth' or 'hooks' to pull you into the project -- sort of like what a thesis begins to provide the 'look into?" project that is a research paper or dissertation. Once the thesis is honed and refined enough; once one has 'looked into' enough things, eventually the thesis provides enough of a 'hook' to provide the contours of the project that give the final vision of what is needed to see it through to completion. But academics tend to have a lot more of these "look into?" projects; and hence, lots of their work everyday is heading into these unexplored frontiers which they know is going to pile on a lot more stuff for them to have to define and do. That regular experience can create a lot of anxiety and aversion that makes so many of us academics the chief of procrastinators. Why do we procrastinate? Because, as academics, we are so used to "look into?" actions that throw on the piles of new work and research we have to do. We then become frequently accustomed to the fear that whatever "look into?" action we complete is going to lead us to a bunch more stuff we have to do.