The Only Way to Stop Worrying About a Task Is to Finally Start It.
Everyone struggles with procrastination from time to time, sometimes because the stress of starting a task prevents us from acting. However, David Kane points out to Raptitude that the moment you take action is the beginning of the end of that worry.
The diagram above is basically an explanation of the life cycle of any task or what you need to do. Anxiety grows from the moment you have something on your to-do list and peaks until you actually start doing it.
As you can see, the problem starts when you know what you need to do, but give it up. It grows in the space between knowledge and deed. The anxiety, shame, and fear associated with the task increase as you live in this space.
In this phase, nothing else happens except your own suffering and aging. We can call this the unproductive phase. The longer this phase lasts, the more disturbing it is and the more difficult the task itself seems.
At some point, often triggered by some kind of crisis, you really start to do what you have to do. This is where anxiety tends to rise – you enter a productive phase where failure, embarrassment, and discovering your own incompetence change from ghosts in the future to danger in real time . This is why procrastinators never get to this part.
However, this stressful period when you start work does not last long. You realize that whatever task you put off is just one final, doable thing.
For serious procrastinators, a longer unproductive phase only increases anxiety and leads to a paralyzing crisis point.
In other words, just do it. The only way to defeat anxiety or fear is to start .
Read the Raptitude post below. It may sound simple, but it will help you stop procrastinating once and for all.
How to force yourself to do things | Raptitude via Tech.co