Can Procrastination Eventually lead to Anxiety?
So the question we need to address today is “Does procrastination cause anxiety or is anxiety caused by procrastination?”. If yes then what could be the major and minor side effects of procrastination. So let us now explore and solve the link between procrastination and anxiety! But before doing that, let us first discuss what Procrastination actually is, reasons behind such behavioural patterns, how it affects one’s daily life and who are the ones commonly affected.
What Does Procrastination Mean?
Procrastination, the act or a behavioural pattern of unnecessarily putting off things that one needs to get done despite knowing the importance and the value of the tasks and the possible consequences that one might face if the tasks go undone.
Now even if the fear of outcome is not able to motivate you to begin and you form a behavioral pattern of pushing things and tasks to the very last minute despite facing consequences in the past, then sorry to inform you but procrastination has messed with your brain enough to affect your daily life!
Possible Reasons Behind Your Daily Procrastination
Absence of Enough Self Belief
Lack or absence of enough belief in yourself and your abilities might be a possible reason behind you procrastinating with all the tasks, big or small! You might not even begin the task if you don’t feel capable enough to give the task a successful completion, this is where procrastination takes the driving seat.
The Lined up Tasks seem Boring
Another major reason behind not completing a lined up task or leaving the one you were onto could be the boring nature of the activity you have to do leading to repeated procrastination. But the fact that you forget is the importance of the activity or the task that you are repeatedly avoiding, that is how procrastination works.
The Fear of Imperfection
As reported in many individuals suffering with procrastination as a habit, they don’t start performing a task as they desire perfection and fear imperfection, which simply means they are delaying the task in wait of better ideas and strategies which drives their task towards perfection and at the same time they are also delaying the task because they fear what if the task falls imperfect, hence the procrastination becomes an unavoidable behavioral pattern in their day to day life, which also might be the case with you.
Commonly Affected Group Of Individuals
The Teenagers & the GenZs
The teenage individuals & the GenZs (born b/w 1997 to 2010) are often caught procrastinating more than any other age groups and the biggest reason for such a habit is the fear of ending up on the wrong side.
The main reason behind them procrastinating their daily tasks might be immaturity and lack of knowledge related to the task they have been assigned or have been asked to perform. In such cases, the solution can be providing proper knowledge and guidance to such individuals to overcome the issue.
The Younger Adults
The Younger adults or the millennials (born between the years 1981 and 1996) in general are also seen suffering from procrastination as a behavioral pattern. These individuals can either be working professionals, freelancers, businessmen or others. Now the question is how can the working young adults fall a prey to procrastination, here is how
The main reason behind the Younger Adults Procrastinating at their tasks might be the hectic work schedule or the overload of tasks they have in store which might exhaust their energy to a saturation point at which they start procrastinating the lined up tasks. Such hefty amounts of lined up tasks result in them pushing the tasks, presentation and projects to the deadline resulting in repeated procrastination even after knowing the consequences of it.
Procrastination And Anxiety
Can Procrastination Lead to Anxiety?
The answer to your question is a big yes, pushing tasks to the last hour with fear of imperfection or due to other reasons can lead to extreme levels of anxiety depending upon the possible consequences as the deadline of the task nears and you are at level zero of task completion.
Duvanta 60mg: What You Need to Know About This Medication
The main causes of Procrastination related anxiety can be:
- Fear of consequences of an untouched task possibly leading to procrastination related anxiety.
- The difficult and different nature of the task being procrastinated can also lead to anxiety due to scarcity of knowledge and lack of skill to perform the task.
- Procrastination related anxiety can also be observed in smaller or easier tasks where lack of self belief is the main cause of procrastination and hence the anxiety.
- Endless desire of perfectionism without even beginning the assigned task can also be a reason of Procrastination related anxiety as the extended fear of imperfection can result in extreme levels of anxiety of not being up to the mark.
Symptoms of Anxiety caused due to Procrastination:
- A disturbed and unorganised sleep cycle
- Losing the decision making ability
- Nausea and Headaches can also be seen in some cases
- Easily irritable and being tensed throughout the day
- Sweating and shaking in extreme cases.
Cure of Procrastination Related Anxiety:
Solving and Overcoming Procrastination in general can help cure procrastination related anxiety with the help of following ways
- START working, sit with the tasks you need to finish.
- Form habits and do activities that help you grow and restore self-belief.
- Gather knowledge, build new skills and research about the tasks lined up which might only seem difficult.
- Get out of your comfort zone, train your body and mind accordingly, start taking your professional and personal responsibilities seriously.
- If all the above mentioned steps don’t help improve the anxiety caused due to extended procrastination, you can consider reaching out to a counsellor or a medical professional.
Conclusion
We are now done with the heavy discussion about procrastination and related anxiety. Hope we have answered all your questions about procrastination related anxiety in the best way possible. Let us now summarise everything that we have covered under the article
- Procrastination Definition and Reasons
- Affected Age groups and the reason behind
- The link between Procrastination and Anxiety
- Causes, Symptoms and Cure of Procrastination related Anxiety.
We sincerely hope that the article helped you in knowing the main reason behind your habit of procrastination and the anxiety that you experience because of the habit. We would recommend you to follow the steps mentioned under the section “Cure of Procrastination Related anxiety” in order to get rid of Procrastination and hence the anxiety.
Read More: Top 5 Medications to cure Anxiety in no Time
Leave a Reply