Are You Dealing With Anxiety Induced Procrastination?

Do you find yourself procrastinating to do important things? You are amazing at getting stuff done normally and may be the most driven, organized, productive person you know. But then there’s a specific daunting task you need to do—so you just put it off. 

It’s not that you’re overwhelmed to accomplish basic tasks, in fact, you’re really great at keeping yourself accountable. But every once in a while, there are some things you put off to the point of it becoming a huge problem.  

Procrastinating can be a sign of high functioning anxiety disorder. When we start feeling anxious about something that we have to do, we tend to put it off. The more anxious you feel, the more you procrastinate. You might even tell yourself I do better at the last minute, or I thrive on a tight deadline--in reality that is you justifying procrastination.

Anxiety procrastination can affect anyone who is feeling high levels of anxiety, even if you don’t show it on the outside (or admit it to yourself). If you struggle with high functioning anxiety for a while, then you’ve probably dealt with procrastination disrupting your life and peace of mind before. 

Figuring out why you’re feeling anxious is the first step you need to take in order to overcome anxiety induced procrastination and stop the cycle of high functioning anxiety procrastination. Bottom line, if you don’t know why you’re anxious, then you won’t be able to fix it. 

Dealing with procrastination and high functioning anxiety is overwhelming and draining. As an anxiety coach, I’ve helped my clients figure out where their procrastination is really coming from to develop a game plan to work through those anxious feelings to stop procrastination in a way that works for them.

Where Is My Procrastination Really Coming From?

Procrastination, we’ve all dealt with it. All those times of staring blankly at your screen or saying “I’ll do it in five minutes”...30 minutes ago. 

But where does procrastination even come from and why does it affect us so much? Anxiety is often the root cause.

For those of us with high functioning anxiety, procrastination can be even worse to the point we try to ignore important but difficult things entirely. If we put things off for so long then we drop the ball and let people down as a result. It starts a cycle of feeling bad about ourselves and beating ourselves up. 

The anxious thoughts swirling around in your head cause self doubt and can make even the simplest task too overbearing. Forcing ourselves to finally do the task often feels painful, even if it’s something relatively easy. We swear we won’t let it get that bad again—but sure enough we’re right back at the same spot ignoring difficult, uncomfortable things and starting the cycle over again.

If you’re often stuck in this cycle, figuring out the reasons why you suffer from procrastination on certain tasks usually requires figuring out your high functioning anxiety. Either way, high functioning anxiety doesn’t come from nowhere and in order to help get those thoughts out of your head that stop you from completing tasks, you need to figure out where those thoughts come from. 

Anxiety Causing Procrastination

Procrastinating on a task because it makes you anxious or scared is a tell-tale sign of anxiety induced procrastination. The problem is most people with high functioning anxiety don’t always know they’re anxious. Not only do we tend to hide our anxiety from others, but we also tend to hide it from ourselves too.

Here are some other ways you can tell you have procrastination caused by high functioning anxiety:

1. Shifting the blame

Anxiety can turn into procrastination but it can also manifest feelings of anger or annoyance. We are annoyed at ourselves for procrastinating but we turn that annoyance on to others, blaming them for their actions or lack of actions. It’s easy to center your attention on someone else’s mistakes when you feel too overwhelmed to focus on your own. 

Blaming others despite your own inaction is an easy way to shift the blame and create a scapegoat so you can keep procrastinating. Try to recognize what’s really going on. Are you mad at that other person, or are you actually anxious about your own responsibilities?

2. Feeling anxious over easy tasks

You’re tasked with something that is either easily manageable or that you’ve done many times before, but you feel really anxious about doing it this time. It could be because the stakes are high or maybe you’re doubting your abilities. Either way, the anxiety you’re feeling causes you to procrastinate. 

Often those with high functioning anxiety will feel like they can’t do a good job or aren’t good enough to take care of an easy task because of internal thoughts. If you find yourself criticizing yourself a lot about easy tasks before you even start, you may be procrastinating because of HFA. Usually people find they may struggle with tasks in one area of their life in particular, like at home or at work, where in other areas of their lives they have no issues. 

3. Being a perfectionist

Perfectionism is another response someone may have when they feel anxious about doing something. Tasks that were easily manageable before become unattainable which could trigger procrastination in someone who struggles with HFA. 

Remind yourself that perfection is impossible. Striving for your best work is a great goal, but it is important to be realistic. If you’re putting off a task because you’re worried you can’t do it perfectly or as good as you or others expect of you, it’s usually a sign of anxiety related to perfectionism. 

Overcoming Procrastination and Anxiety

Do you find yourself procrastinating more and more? Maybe you’re someone who is struggling with high functioning anxiety and doesn’t even know it. You may look like you’re calm and collected on the outside but on the inside you’re not okay. 

As an anxiety coach, I work with you to sort through your emotions and suggest a game plan of how to deal with procrastination anxiety when it gets triggered. My coaching services provide the opportunity for me to work with you one on one so we can really dig deep and fix the problems you’re facing. 

I also offer a course designed to help people that deal with high levels of anxiety but may look like they have it together on the outside. Figuring out the voices in your head that lead to procrastination is one of the key takeaways my course is designed to help you do.

Are you ready to get a handle on your anxiety induced procrastination? Schedule a free consultation or check out my course to get started.