Procrastination all the time

Does anyone have difficulty (extreme) with getting tasks that are more taxing like work reports or whatever and put it off until you are so behind your anxiety is such that you can't seem to even know why you did this to yourself again. And what do you do to prevent or stop yourself?

[Hidden]

Hello & Welcome Hidden

We have not long since started to try and get this group more active , it is slow but like you the more members that post and reply we hope we will get there but in the meantime we are short on replies which are really needed but hope this will not be off putting and hope you don't mind having to maybe just put up with my reply while we are waiting for others to hopefully contribute to the Community

I do find myself putting things of because in the back of my mind I know they could be stressful and start to create anxiety so pushing them out the way seems like a good idea at the time but then it turns out it is not the great idea I thought it was as they all come tumbling down and want dealing with all at once so what I thought was protecting myself ends up reversing if this makes any sense ?

So just my thoughts that maybe we do this initially thinking it is a coping mechanism to prevent anxiety but then it turns into what creates major anxiety

Mostly though I cannot put things of as I am very organised and I have to be organised to keep my anxiety at bay that is how I cope even though that also can have a reverse effect as well as you never seem to switch of

I think recognizing what you are doing like you have recognized is a great start in turning this around , followed by making small changes

I find doing lists very helpful , helps keep me on track

So maybe I would start doing lists of the things I need to do like work reports etc

Pin it up somewhere where I cannot ignore it and one by one tick them of as I do them , giving myself a pat on the shoulder as I do as we do not always give ourselves enough praise in our achievements

I hope members will give you more replies and suggestions but I can assure you that you are not alone with this and you can and will break this cycle

lulu-1

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Thanks lulu1😊😊

[Meeasy]

I can idfntify with that. In school I always waited till the last minute to do assignment but somehow I worked better under pressure and excelled. I took that into my career and it worked there too. Now that I'm older, I don't have the physical or mental energy to run that way. It's exhausting. Now as I prepare for retirement that bundled energy can come out as panic. For me as an adult, Im aware enough to see it as a symptom of ADD and dissociation. It was a coping skill to avoid my family dysfunction. It served me well as a survival skill but not so well now that I want to live a simple and settled life. I can avoid and avoid and avoid until I'm isolated then I panic.

I'm trying excercise, meditation to improve focus and go to 12 step recovery for adult children of disfunctional families. I'm seeing a need to go back and heal the inner child where this all began.

That's my story. Good luck to you ✌️

[Hidden in reply to Meeasy]

Yes and yes! Ironically I am very good at helping people through difficult times as well as gifting them with coping strategies, but myself well I always wait till the last minute and then my anxiety is in full effect! Getting older now too and feeling the effects and seeing my other friends (therapists too!) doing exactly the same thing. It comes down to making a commitment to daily task completion but so far I'm still "stuck." #atbeinghuman thank you for sharing your story Meeasy😊

[LibertyB]

Procrastination is the area I excel in. The past two days at work I've achieved very little at work as my mind has been else where. All I've really achieved is writing and rewriting my to do list.

This makes my anxiety so much worse as when I come home I feel like I've achieved nothing and I'm failing everything.

The way that I've managed to get around this is by setting myself deadlines. Even if they're not real I drill them into my mind for each of my tasks. But obviously don't be too harsh on yourself if you don't achieve them as that's no good to anyone.