Are you constantly worrying about things you should be doing and don’t get round to?  Do keep finding reasons to not get on with big tasks, then struggle with that internal nagging voice going on and on about how useless you are?

Wasted Energy and Time. You can waste a lot of time with these kind of thoughts. They drain your energy reserves and zap your confidence. This state of affairs is all too common in people who are perfectionists and natural worriers. They feel a constant sense of worry or anxiety and then avoid taking action, which keeps them firmly locked in this trap.

Avoidance and Anxiety  A sure fire way to stay anxious is to avoid doing the things that you’ve been worrying about.  When you keep doing this your fear grows and gets worse the longer you keep up the avoiding tactics the higher your level of anxiety.

For example supposed you promised yourself to have a meeting with your boss in the morning and then kept putting it off all day, you’ll find it harder and harder to do. Disaster thoughts will reign and what could have been a simple discussion becomes a potential event of ‘life threatening’ proportions.

Short term relief   Although you might feel better the moment you put off tasks that you know should be done, the relief is short lived. Very soon those nagging background thoughts and feelings start to rise making it difficult to concentrate. Then when you try to start work on this task again your anxiety about it is greater and so you associate even more worry and doom with the task.  A very sorry cycle of anxiety and doom laden thoughts becomes your daily regime.

Take Action and Avoid Avoiding  There is a simple solution to this cycle: always confront the things that make you anxious and stay with them until your negative reaction fades. Of course in the beginning this tactic may seem hard to do, but it’s extremely effective in reducing your anxiety.

The key to success is to keep doing the activity that you wanted to avoid until a positive result occurs. So if you’ve been avoiding a writing task that’s part of a project, sit down and start writing until you get some great ideas or a feeling that you’re in the flow. Then savour the positive experience so that your mind starts to associate this task with a positive. Then of course keep going, don’t leave the task.
Practice Makes Perfect Once you discovered this simple truth it’s important that you keep applying it. Train yourself to stick with a task so that you naturally begin to anticipate doing well and enjoying your work.  A client I worked with decided to use his office clock and start work on a particular project at a particular time for a set period, no matter what. In the early stages he said it was tricky but the more he persisted the easier it became. In fact he started to look forward to it and in no time was getting things done and going home on time guilt-free. And you can too!