Anxiety related procrastination ruining my life

[SilverHairedCat]

I'm a highly accomplished procrastinator. Never do now what you can put off until tomorrow. It's anxiety and performance related - total fear of failure and imposter syndrome (IYSWIM).

Its biting me on the arse at work, where my depression and anxiety has been steadily affecting my productivity over the last 10 months and is getting to the point where I'm on the cusp of being put on performance plans. Not a shock really.

Has anyone overcome this? How did you do it? Any practical advice?

To do lists make me worse - I re-organise them and re-prioritise them multiple times a week.
Journals look pretty, achieve nothing.
Speadsheets are my absolute love. Great for faffing with for hours.
I can stare at the same screen for hours and make no progress.

I’m the same. I usually manage okay but when I had depression it got really bad. I’m now but and sort of function but it is stressful.

Is it worth looking in treatment for depression or anxiety?

I've recently had some talking therapy but tbh it wasn't much help. CBT I've done 3 times and it's never been very useful. I'm at a bit of a loss now as to where to go next. Maybe private psychologist?

I'm off the happy pills with GPs day so. I'm trying CBD pills for the anxiety, but I'm only 3 days into those.

When I'm stable, I'm a bit of an over achiever at work, so this is a real shock to the system. I'm not used to struggling this hard with even simple tasks.

Bumping for any other ideas or similar procrastinators...

The only way to deal with procrastination is to just do whatever it is that you're putting off. Can you make a list of tasks each day and start every morning with the worst one (to get it out of the way) and then "reward" yourself with a few easy tasks. I do this and it really helps to tick things off a list - old-school with a pad and pen!

I have this. I recommend reading a book called 'The Now Habit.' It's transformational. If I know I am procrastinating due to fear, I read a few pages and it puts me in an entirely different frame of mind.

I'm v similar to you and I'm afraid I don't have any answers. You might find this helpful tho...

waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html

@More2Fly where do you start when the list is about 40 items long, and some of them are reports that take days to prepare? Many of the tasks are completed over a period of time and can't be managed in a day, whilst being juggled with piles of short term immediate work.

@HugePotatoes I'll have a look at this, thank you.

@Destinysdaughter I'll have a look at this too, thank you. What helps you?

Just found this, a pdf of The Now Habit!

www.hashref.com/summaries/TheNowHabit.pdf

some of them are reports that take days to prepare

Can you break the reports and other big tasks down into smaller tasks, so you can cross a few off each day and feel you've made some progress?

What helps me? It's when the pain of not doing the task ( and the cost ) is greater than the pain of doing it. I could tell you some shocking stories of the problems I've caused for myself through procrastinating about things, especially related to money, but they're too shameful to admit in public!

Recently I've just pushed through things, I was sick with anxiety but I kept telling myself I WILL feel better when I've done it and actually I feel so much better having taken action and sorted out some problems. However it took me losing my relationship to do it. It's an awful affliction and totally illogical to people who just get on with stuff!

You have my total sympathy as I can be like this. Once I am in a cycle of it, it gets worse.

Productivity is a habit and you can re-learn it but I think it sounds as though there are deeper self-esteem issues at work and some CBT/therapy/being extra kind to yourself might be the thing.

I also reread a v good book, Your Best Year Yet , where you look over your last year, list your successes and failures and analyse them. I've lost 2 stone this year and how I did it was by making a decision to do it, making it achievable, realistic and time based, got support, checked in weekly and made myself accountable. These strategies worked and so I'm now trying to use them in other areas of my life. I also listened to lots of podcasts to try and inspire myself, especially by Tim Ferris.

I'm like this too. I suffer with anxiety at times. it used to be about money. ironically, I worried about money and that stopped me working (and therefore stopped me earning money). It spiralled at times - until I was up into the wee hours working because I had a bill to pay the next day.

Nowadays money isn't an issue - but I worry about being any good. So I put off tasks and they build up until the worry shifts to having too much to do.

Right now I have close to twenty pieces of work to do for around 6 different clients - all expecting the work done by the end of the week. These jobs will take anywhere from 30 mins to 4 hours to complete. So it is easily 1-2 weeks work...

And I spent a lot of time today on mumsnet...

Can you break down the reports into smaller tasks? If they take days to prepare and you can't get anything else done in those days it sounds like more of a workload issue..

This is me also. "Wait but Why" could have been modelled on me! I've been like it all my life. Little chance of me being able to overcome it now, I think. I've learned to live with it, sort of.

Hi Op I have this sometimes at home not at work. The thing I'm most anxious about is put off, or when I am slow to do something initially it ends ip in the procrastination pile. Then it's very hard to do.
One strategy I have is :
Understand it's anxiety led
Prioritise the most vital, urgent jobs that have to be done today with a number one beside them - only about three jobs. Then do them. They have to be done because they are actually urgent or necessary very soon and so pick them out carefully.

THIS thread is my life...my procrastination/perfectionism/anxiety is awful.
I've lost out on work (which I wouldn't finish because it wasn't perfect) friendships that I didn't follow up with (cos I'm not perfect), having people call over (because my house is not perfect) flirting back with nice men who would be great long-term partners (because they may find out I am not perfect).

It is horrendous.

This is me too. Procrastination fuelled by fear and anxiety as well as unwillingness to do the task. I work from home and it's a struggle sometimes. I completed an MA earlier this year, not without difficulty. Watching with interest for tips.

OK, interesting, I really thought this would be less common, so thank you all for making me feel more normal!!!

I went to do the washing up instead of putting it off.

The reports, yes I probably could work out a way to break them down more. Yes, the workload is also high as well.

Self esteem is a huge issue, but I'm not sure why they're so bad about work all of a sudden....

Ironically my debt is nearly all gone, I've knocked it down from £16k to £1500 in 4 years.

Years ago I did some “Seven habits of highly effective people” training at work and one of the “habits” that’s stuck with me is “first things first” - deal with the “big rocks” i.e. the most important (but often trickiest!) tasks first and let the “gravel” (i.e. the more mundane, easier tasks) fit in around those bigger tasks. Helps me with prioritising me to do list.

Baroness Blonde you have described me to a tee. I know I have missed out on so many potentially good things in my life, because I can't make myself perfect. Thanks for putting it into words.

Oh Belinda you're very welcome...I'm just sad that this is anyone else's life.
It's a pathetic way to live.

I'm challenging myself at the moment to "let go" of work reports and send them out less than 'perfect' (in reality, they will be perfectly fine)

I cannot see a way out of it. Actually at the moment it's getting worse, I feel sick with anxiety every day and put absolutely everything off or cancel whatever I can, to the point where I am only happy in my house, making no plans at all.

You're not alone OP