Procrastination can catch up to you, causing an array of adverse effects like anxiety, insomnia, and frustration. It seems as if overthinking and lack of ability to action your thoughts have more bad than good qualities, and if you’re a procrastinator it might be time to take a step in a healthier direction,
It won’t be long before procrastination leaves you with irregular sleep patterns, and it can even affect your eating patterns. Don’t try to accomplish something as simple as a training routine – leaving everything else till the last minute will soon disrupt even the smallest detail of what could be a healthy and regular life. If you can relate to what’s mentioned so far, it might be a good time to ask for help.
Many people that seek professional help for anxiety-related issues have one trait in common: They procrastinate.
Fortunately, it is not impossible to turn this path to anxiety around. Most people suffering from this have found that the moment they started actioning instead of remaining passive, their fear was almost immediately a thing of the past. It will positively affect every other area of your life as you increasingly became content and satisfied with your life again.
Why Do People Procrastinate?
A commonly found reason is that people are not genuinely interested in a project or task that needs completing. It can occur regularly in work-related environments and could be a good indicator that you’re not in the right job.
If there is no actual reward for doing a job you don’t feel inspired to do, it can cause anxiety as the deadline looms, and you lack the desire to complete it. In this scenario, the problem is that you’ll have to complete the task anyway to alleviate your anxiety or quit.
Many people refer to themselves as suffering from OCD jokingly, but to someone who suffers from a fear of failure, it can have devastating effects. Perfectionism is when you can’t stand the thought of not being good enough. This fear seeps into your everyday life and functions as you try to delay rejection or to hear that what you’ve completed is not good enough.
If you are avoiding completing specific tasks such as filing your taxes, it could be because you’re worried about the result. Filing your taxes inevitably means paying over an amount of money that you might fear you’ll need otherwise. This fear of the result causes you to hold off doing what needs to, causing unnecessary stress and anxiety. If you have to finish it, do it.
There’s absolutely no point in trying to delay the inevitable. You’ll often find that the end-result you feared all along is not as bad as you’ve anticipated, and it alleviates anxiety almost immediately.
The ‘planning fallacy’ is another top cause of procrastination that leads to a lot of unnecessary stress. When you overestimate the time a project will take to complete and underestimate the final deadline.
Common Signs And Symptoms Of Procrastination
It might come as a surprise, but one of the most overlooked symptoms that cause procrastination is boredom. If you’re dissatisfied with a pending task, you might be looking for ways to avoid doing and completing it. It could be that you’re looking for anything else to do than what’s right in front of you.
If you’re bored with a specific task, consider handing it over to someone else to complete. The stress of knowing you’re not getting it done is causing unnecessary anxiety.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed with what’s expected of you, it could be another cause that leads to procrastination. It might be worth your while and money to outsource some of the tasks on your plate. It can help you to get rid of the things you don’t enjoy doing and help you clear up time to focus on doing what makes you feel happy
Are you feeling tired all the time? It could also lead to procrastination. In a world where we’re always on the go, consider if you’re getting enough sleep, exercise, and down-time. Leading a balanced life will give you more energy, and the mountain in front of you will suddenly look more like the small hill that it actually is.
How To Tackle Procrastination And Get Going With Life Again
If you’ve read this article thinking you fit the bill of a procrastinator, don’t despair. It’s never too late to start taking healthy steps in the right direction. In a nutshell, avoidance causes procrastination. If you can deal with the issues and tasks that you’re currently putting off at all costs, you’ve won half the battle.
If you don’t deal with it, the chances are excellent that the anxiety, which results from but also causes procrastination, will only deepen and cause more damage. If you can confess that avoidance is the first step you need to approach and resolve, you’re already on your way to recovery.
Set achievable goals to start finishing the outstanding tasks on your plate, give it to a colleague to complete or outsource it. Whatever you decide to do, you’ll see that taking the first step and actively doing something to sort it out already removes a tremendous amount of anxiety.
Like people always say, take baby steps. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Try allowing yourself more time to live and eat healthily, and try to shift your perspective to a positive attribute of completing a task.
Before you know it, you’ll be back on top again and ahead of the game, not lagging behind.
