Fear of failure, overthinking, and overwhelm make simple tasks feel impossible. The anxiety triggered by these thoughts leads to procrastination. Here’s what’s happening in your brain and how to get unstuck.
Written by Simon Spichak, MSc, Co-Founder of Resolvve
Your assignment is due in a few hours, but you haven’t started. For the last week, you’ve opened up the document intending to work on the report but managed to get distracted. Today, you find yourself organizing your desk and cleaning your room instead of working.
The worst part is the anxiety — your palms get sweaty and your chest tightens when you think about getting started. What if you screw up the assignment? What if you’re not good enough for the program? You know you’re not lazy but you can’t get past that first bit of friction to start. Anxiety causes procrastination through avoidance coping. When a task triggers dread, fear of failure, or perfectionism, the brain interprets it as a threat. Avoidance becomes an easy pathway to relief.
This article provides an overview of the link between anxiety and procrastination, how it triggers avoidance, and strategies to break through the anxiety-procrastination cycle.
Procrastination Is An Emotional Regulation Problem
Procrastinators don’t have problems with time management or laziness. The problem boils down to emotional regulation.
Although certain tasks aren’t inherently dangerous, they may trigger distress linked to perfectionism or fear of failure. Building up emotional regulation skills even improves procrastination.
Procrastination is also a key symptom of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) which is driven by difficulties with executive function. People with ADHD may struggle to prioritize and initiate new tasks, especially when they’re boring.
People with both ADHD and anxiety may have procrastination caused by a mix of these factors.
How Anxiety Triggers Avoidance
When we feel anxious, the brain’s threat-detection system rings the alarm. It’s so loud that it drowns out the parts of the brain that help you think clearly and regulate emotions. The more you listen to the alarm, the louder it gets and the harder it becomes to start a task.
There are many different triggers for the avoidance linked to procrastination.
Fear of Failure
Anxiety makes even mundane emails, reports, and assignments feel high-stakes. Even when failure carries little risk, the emotional dysregulation makes you feel like the world will end if you screw up the simple task. Avoidance means not trying at all so that you don’t end up confirming these beliefs about yourself, and avoiding the potential consequences of making a mistake.
Perfectionism
When you’ve got high standards about your own work, imperfection becomes impossible to tolerate. The avoidance results from knowing that if you start working on a task, it might end up more flawed than you imagine.
Overthinking and Decision Paralysis
Some people develop overthinking anxiety, ruminating over every possible outcome before taking an action. Think of Chidi Anagonye in TV show The Good Place, whose overthinking led him to struggle with making the simplest decisions, like choosing between different brands of cereal. The overthinking makes it impossible to take a tangible step and get started.
Overwhelm
Complex, important, and vague tasks could trigger a threat response. These tasks are so challenging that you might not know where to start, overwhelming emotional regulation. The task seems so impossible that it becomes impossible to start.
The Anxiety-Procrastination Cycle
Anxiety and procrastination exist as a feedback loop:
- Anxiety: A task triggers feelings of anxiety, discomfort, and worry. It may be caused by perfectionism, fear of failure, overwhelm, or overthinking
- Avoidance: To cope with the distress, you decide to avoid the task and procrastinate.
- Temporary relief: While you’re procrastinating, the anxiety goes away.
- Coming back to the task: The due date is getting closer and the task becomes more difficult to complete in time.
- More anxiety: You’re more stressed out even more because you procrastinated instead of starting the task.
- More avoidance: You continue to avoid the task because you’re so stressed out.
The cycle also triggers shame, guilt, and self-criticism that makes the anxiety even worse.
Signs Your Procrastination Is Anxiety-Driven
The procrastination may be driven by anxiety if:
- You procrastinate whenever the work will be judged or evaluated
- You spend more time overthinking than working on a task
- Avoidance leads to relief and guilt
- You feel physical symptoms like chest tightness, restlessness, or start to sweat when you think about the task
- You worry about the task not being completed up to your personal standards
What Helps With Procrastination Caused by Anxiety
The best way to overcome procrastination involves tamping down the threat signal enough that you can start.
Make the First Step Genuinely Small
Take the first step and write the first sentence. Doing tasks in small chunks helps the brain learn that the task isn’t as scary or threatening as it appears.
Name What You’re Avoiding
Say out loud why you’re feeling anxious. “I’m avoiding working on the sales report because I fear my boss will be disappointed and fire me.” Naming anxiety, or name it to tame it, is a key skill taught in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which is used to treat anxiety.
Separate the Process From the Outcome
Procrastination caused by anxiety is linked to the fear of failure. Decoupling the actual task from the fear of failure could make it easier to start. Work on focusing on the task itself rather than the potential outcomes to stay focused and on task.
Challenge the Catastrophic Thought
When procrastination is caused by overthinking, start challenging the worst case scenario. If your anxiety is telling you you’ll be fired for sending a bad email, call it out as faulty logic. No one gets fired over miswording an email. Focus on what the realistic outcome is, rather than the catastrophic scenario which is far less likely.
Get Support To Break the Cycle
Self-help could genuinely improve your procrastination. But sometimes, you need a helping hand.
Anxiety-driven procrastination becomes more serious when it’s affecting work, relationships, and your feelings of self-worth. If it is a long-standing pattern and the self-help strategies you’ve tried aren’t helping, it may be time to speak with a mental health professional.
Therapy for anxiety could help with persistent procrastination issues by helping you find the root of your anxiety and work to address it.
How Resolvve Can Help
Procrastination is common, but if you need extra help our therapists are here to help you work through it. Our therapists will work with you to change the underlying beliefs that drive your anxiety and work on helping you build up a toolkit to deal with the discomfort. Therapy starts at $30 with student interns and $100 with registered psychotherapists and social workers.
Book a free consultation today to see if we’re a right fit for you.