How to Overcome Anxiety and Procrastination by Identifying Your Limiting Beliefs with Dr Sasha Heinz
I’m happy to present an excellent guest post written by James Frankton, who writes at Why Am I Lazy. James tells us about the connection between the fear of failure and procrastination. The solution he recommends is simple, yet effective (just the way I like it). Thank you James!1
Do you often find yourself procrastinating because you are worried that you won’t succeed?
Have you ever put off doing something because you were concerned about what others will think if you failed?
If so, then it’s likely that you have a procrastination problem that is caused by the fear of failure.
Keep reading to overcome this fear, and kick procrastination to the curb in the process.
Why Fear Causes Procrastination
You may fear that you are simply going to be unable to complete a task or activity that you need to do.
For example, your boss has assigned you to complete a gargantuan report using Excel – software that you only have limited knowledge of using.
You may also fear the consequences of a perceived failure. In my experience, this often relates to being worried that others will cast negative judgment in the event that you fail at something.
How to overcome Fear, Doubt, and Procrastination
Here’s an example: You’ve wanted to try your hand at learning piano, but you’re worried the instructor you choose will think you are so hopeless that you might as well give up. And don’t even get started on how terrifying the prospect of others hearing you practice will be!
Procrastination piggybacks off your fear of failure as a cathartic means of risk avoidance.
Basically, you are procrastinating in order to avoid facing up to failure or its consequences.
How Can You Overcome The Fear of Failure?
Now comes the important part – how can you overcome that fear of failure?
If you simply fear that you will not be able to succeed at a task, then you need to arm yourself with the tools and resources you need to “get it right” the first time.
When I was at university I often procrastinated on essays and term papers because I genuinely worried that I wouldn’t be able to pass. I didn’t so much care about what my peers thought of my marks – it was the pain of letting myself down which I feared.
How To Overcome Procrastination By 'Leaping Afraid' | Lisa Nichols
So what was the solution?
I started preparing myself to succeed and do well. I developed a game plan for writing every essay, which involved dedicating adequate time to research and planning. I read up on editing and proofreading academic papers, to ensure I didn’t lose any marks for careless mistakes.
The essays I submitted after I cast aside my fear of failing (due to the actions I took to prepare myself) garnered good marks. I was pleased, and felt encouraged to work harder on future projects, as I now knew I had a formula for success.
And what was the moral of the story? If you’re worried that you are going to let yourself down, then make sure you have taken every practicable step to ensure you don’t fail.
But what should you do if you mainly fear the “social impacts” of failure? (i.e. you are worried that others will judge you harshly for any perceived failure).
I’ll always remember a physical education teacher at high school, who told the class before our running test that he didn’t care what our final time was – as long as he could see that we had all put in a 100% effort.
How To Turn Your Fear Into Fuel | Lisa Nichols
This idea rings true in most social scenarios; provided your colleagues/friends/family/whomever can see you tried your hardest, they are unlikely to react negatively.
In fact, most people will react positively to you if you give something your best effort, even if you weren’t successful in the strictest sense.
Boiling things down to their most basic level, this means that to totally overcome the fear of failure that causes procrastination you need to:
- Prepare adequately for any task you undertake, in order to mitigate the risk of failure.
- Give your best effort, so that if you do stumble at any stage, those around you will be loath to judge you for it.
If that’s not enough to encourage you to take action, then bear in mind the following points:
- Most mistakes can be fixed. You will probably get another chance if something goes wrong.
- If you perpetually procrastinate on a task, you are already in the process of failing – taking action is the only way to reverse this!
- Most tasks or activities can be broken down into smaller chunks. Use this strategy to make things more manageable and easy to attempt (and reduce the risk of failure)
How To Combat Anxiety & Procrastination | The Anxiety Solution
Conclusion
Fearing failure – or the perceived consequences of failure – shouldn’t hold you back from achieving great things in your life.
Now you know effective strategies for beating this fear. It’s time to fight back against procrastination and unleash your inner motivation and productivity.
At its root, procrastination is almost always based on some kind of fear. And figuring out how to beat that fear is the key to unprocrastination, in the long run.
Quick fixes are fine, but if the fears remain unabated, they will continue to act on you, causing you to want to procrastinate despite your best intentions.
So how do you beat fear? One of the reasons fear can be so powerful is because it lurks in the dark — unnoticed, in the recesses of our minds, it acts without us knowing it. So the first step is to shine some light on it — fear hates light. The light is our attention, our examining of the fears, our taking a close look at them to see if they’re rational or baseless.
Once we’ve shined a light on the fears, we can beat them with information. For example, if you’re afraid you’re going to fail, well, do a small test and see. If you don’t fail, that’s information — you now know that, at least with a small test, you won’t necessarily fail. Keep repeating the tests and you’ll gather a lot of information that is contrary to the fear, beating the fear because you now know with good certainty that it’s baseless.
Shine a light on the fear, run small tests, and beat it with information.
Let’s first look at some of the fears that cause procrastination, and then talk about shining a light on fears.
How to Overcome Fear
Some Procrastination Fears
A number of fears contribute to procrastination, including but not limited to:
- Fear that you’ll fail or do badly. Probably the most common one.
- Fear of the unknown — the task is not familiar to you, so you don’t know what to do or where to start.
- Fear of the uncomfortable. It’s easy to do things we’re comfortable with, but doing new things is uncomfortable so we put them off.
- Fear of starting in the wrong place. You don’t start because what if you’re not starting the right way?
These are all obviously related, and they can be summed up as “fear of failure or not being good enough”. Let’s take a look at how to beat these related fears.
Shining a Light
Fear runs in the background — like a background process on a computer, unseen by the common user. Unfortunately, because we are aware that the fear is running in the background, lurking in the dark, and acting on us, it has great power over us.
You can’t beat it if you don’t know it’s there.
So the first step is to pause, and shine a light on the lurking fear. We avoid this, but don’t. Take a look at the fear, and be honest with yourself: why are you avoiding this task? What are you afraid of?
The Ending of Fear | Krishnamurti
If you don’t know, just ask this: are you afraid you’ll fail or do badly, or won’t be good at it? Are you afraid of not being good enough?
The answer is likely to be yes, if you’re honest. If you still aren’t sure, that’s OK — you might not be good at recognizing your fears yet, and that’s perfectly fine. Just assume that it’s a version of these fears, and practice examining your fears more often so you’ll get good at recognizing them.
Now ask: Is there a reason you think you’ll fail or do badly, or that you’re not good enough? Have you failed at this kind of task a lot before? Or is it that you fail or do badly at things in general?
It’s possible that the fear is groundless, and that you normally do well on tasks like this, or on things in general. In that case, it’s probably based on some incident in your past (perhaps childhood) where you didn’t do well and there was a bad consequence. This incident created a fear in the back of your mind that’s still operating today, even if doing badly on things today probably wouldn’t have the same consequence (fears are irrational).
It’s also possible that you might do badly or fail, because you don’t know how to do the task. In that case, is it rational to put the task off, or learn by getting information and training, and practicing? Take the rational route — don’t let the fear, even if it has some basis in reality, stop you from acting.
Run Small Tests
How do you know if the fear is rational or not? There’s only one way to find out: test it. Run a tiny test at first: do a little of the task, and see what happens. Was it horrible?
5 Ways To Conquer Fear | Steven Furtick
Most likely, a small test will give you decent results, but you still won’t trust that your fear is groundless. So run another small test, then another. By doing small tests, you aren’t risking anything really bad, and you can quickly get results.
So how do you run small tests? Some examples might include doing just 5-10 minutes of a scary task, practicing just the most absolute basic skill of a group of skills you don’t know, or doing a very easy, non-public project that doesn’t take long before tackling a similar but harder or more public project.
Win With Information
Once you’ve run some small tests, you now have some information you didn’t have before. Before, you were afraid of a bad outcome but didn’t really know if the bad outcome would happen or not. Now you can say with more certainty whether the bad outcome is likely or not.
Let’s say you were afraid of failing or looking bad at a task, but you did some small tests and it turned out fine each time. Now you can say, “Well, it’s not very likely that I’ll fail, as I didn’t fail the other times … maybe my fear isn’t very grounded in reality, isn’t very rational.”
Use this rational process to beat the fear. It’s irrational and doesn’t make much sense, and if you look at it rationally you’ll see that. Gradually, through this process, the fear will lose its power.
It takes a bit of time to beat fear through shining a light on it, running small tests, and using information and rationality to finally banish it … but it’s worth the effort. We allow fear to control us too much, allow it to cause us to procrastinate. Let’s take back that control.
Favor Over Fear | Pastor Steven Furtick | Elevation Church
How does fear cause procrastination?
We all procrastinate sometimes, despite its negative impact on our productivity. The word “procrastinate” comes from the Latin roots pro (forward) and crastinus (belonging to tomorrow), which developed into procrastinat in English, meaning “deferred until tomorrow.” Perfect, right?
So why do we knowingly put important things off that we know we need to do? Many of us believe procrastination arises from laziness, and maybe that’s true sometimes. Maybe it’s mostly true for some people. But I believe the chief cause of procrastination is subconscious fear. So let’s take a look at the five fears I believe contribute most to procrastination. If you see yours here, that might explain your procrastination—not laziness.
Fear of failure is a HUGE factor in procrastination, because it includes so many related fears: fear you’ll do the job badly, fear you didn’t prepare enough, fear because you don’t know where to start, fear you don’t know enough, and so on. Ultimately, you fear you’ll mess up the task and look foolish. Well, maybe you will; but if you let procrastination weigh you down, the prophecy becomes self-fulfilling, and you will fail. Spectacularly. But if you at least try, no one can blame you for not making the effort. Nobody does everything right the first time. Do the best you can and learn from the experience, so you can move forward with those lessons in mind. You probably won’t lose your job for failing your first time out, as long as you’re willing to keep trying. Prepare carefully, do the best you can, and deal with the details as they emerge.
Fear of success is also surprisingly common. We all know the best ditch-digger’s reward: a bigger shovel and more work. Are you the “reliable” one in the office—the one your manager counts on to come in on your days off and fix the mistakes others make? If so, you understand the fear of success and the stress that can result. Doing a good job can result in promotions and more money, and it might also result in too much work… and so, subconsciously, some people let themselves fail through procrastination.
Fear of running out of work. This is a constant fear in workplaces where headcount is shrinking through attrition. If you finish all the work on your plate, will you get more—or will your role be eliminated? Even in a good economy, if people are twiddling their thumbs because they’re out of work, the common reaction is to reduce the team’s size and then go through the trouble of rehiring when the work does come. If this fear powers your procrastination, you can’t allow it to continue. Just assume your supervisor will have work for you and ask for projects and increased responsibilities. Otherwise you’ll eventually lose standing, because you’re stretching the work you do have too far.
Fear of the Unknown. When you’re presented with work that’s new to you, or that’s unclear, or that you don’t know where to start, you may feel reluctant to put your shoulder to the wheel and get to work. You can overcome this fear by consulting with someone experienced in that type of work. Ask a colleague or co-worker to introduce you to someone in the field, so you don’t end up reinventing the wheel. Or ask your manager for the training required to do the job right.
Fear of the Task arises when you’re given something you don’t like to do, possibly because it’s difficult, unpleasant, you’re sick of it, or you feel unqualified for it. Maybe you don’t agree with the project and how it’s run or find the task of questionable value or taste. So instead, you do other things first, “deferring until tomorrow.” At least you’re procrastinating somewhat productively… but you’re still procrastinating.
"How To Overcome Fear" Pastor John K. Jenkins Sr. (Very Powerful Word)
Do It Anyway
How do these five fears stack up against your procrastination reality? I’m willing to bet at least one resonates with you, and all are understandable. But you have a choice: you can let your fears control you, or you can square your shoulders and do the work you’re paid to do. Obviously living in fear isn’t the answer, so find ways to answer or work around the fears you have control over, and stop worrying about the ones you don’t. Otherwise, you’ll never stop procrastinating.
About Laura Stack, your next keynote speaker:
Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, CPAE is an award-winning keynote speaker, bestselling author, and noted authority on productivity and performance. Funny, engaging, and full of real life strategies that work, Laura will change mindsets and attitudes so your people can maximize productivity, strengthen performance, and get the job done right. Her presentations at corporate events, sales kick-off meetings, and association conferences help audiences improve output, increase speed in execution, and save time in the office. Stack has authored seven books, including her newest work, Doing the Right Things Right: How the Effective Executive Spends Time (Jan. 2016). To have Laura Stack speak at your next event, call 303-471-7401, email Christine@TheProductivityPro.
Here’s what others are saying:
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—Mary Pawlowski, Learning Design, Piedmont Natural Gas
"Living Without Fear" Pastor John K. Jenkins Sr. (Very Powerful Word)
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—Don Gorning, Chair, Institute for Management Studies Cleveland
Be honest: Do you struggle in getting things started (or completed)? Do you tell yourself, “I’ll get to it,” yet find yourself binge-watching an entire season of Bridgeton instead?
You're not alone.
According to Psychology Today, procrastination is a common human tendency. For the occasional offender, finding the willpower to buckle down and power through is usually enough to boost productivity and focus on accomplishing the task at hand.
But while everyone may procrastinate, not everyone is a procrastinator, says Joseph Ferrari, a psychology professor at DePaul University, leading researcher on the subject, and author of Still Procrastinating: The No Regrets Guide to Getting It Done. Ferrari says we all put tasks off, but his research has found that 20 percent of U.S. men and women are chronic procrastinators.
PROMOTED
One simple trick to overcome your biggest fear | Ruth Soukup | TEDxMileHigh
“It really has nothing to do with time management,” he says. “As I tell people, to tell the chronic procrastinator to 'just do it' would be like saying to a clinically depressed person, ‘cheer up.’”
Psychologists have discovered that procrastination isn’t a time management thing but instead a coping mechanism. When we procrastinate, we’re avoiding an unpleasant task and doing something else that gives us a temporary mood boost. Timothy Pychyl, a professor who studies procrastination at Carleton University in Ottawa, calls this avoidance behavior “giving in to feel good.”
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But the shame and guilt of not doing what we should be doing can make us procrastinate even further, creating a vicious, self-defeating cycle. And what makes procrastination so harmful is that the tasks don't go away. Eventually, you’re left with the tasks to complete, the negative emotions again, plus the added stress of a time constraint.
Like Ferrari, Pychyl agrees that procrastination isn’t a time management problem. “It’s about really dealing with our feelings. Emotional regulation, to me, is the real story around procrastination because to the extent that I can deal with my emotions, I can stay on task,” says Pychyl.
Life beyond fear: Karina Hollekim at TEDxBucharest
So what’s a chronic procrastinator to do? The next time you don’t feel like doing something, try these three tips:
Acknowledge why you’ve been avoiding it
You’re not lazy; you're scared. When we procrastinate, we’re avoiding the unpleasant feelings that accompany the task at hand. Procrastination is rooted in fear—of failure, of success, or of not being perfect—and fear is a powerful emotion. We feel anxiety when we’re pushed to do things that make us uncomfortable, so naturally, we avoid them at all costs. But when we try to get rid of the negative feelings by, say, scrolling our social media feeds, it’s only a temporary fix. By facing your emotions, you can begin to manage them.
Forgive yourself for procrastinating
Pychyl and others found that people prone to procrastination are, overall, less compassionate toward themselves. One of the most effective things that procrastinators can do is to forgive themselves for procrastinating. In a study, students who reported forgiving themselves for procrastinating on studying for a first exam ended up procrastinating less for a second exam.
Researchers say employing self-compassion works because procrastination is linked to negative feelings. When you forgive yourself, you’ll reduce the guilt you feel about procrastinating, eliminating one of the primary triggers for procrastinating.
Just get started
Pychyl says that most of us mistakenly believe that “our emotional state has to match the task at hand.” But the truth is that you’ll rarely feel like it, nor does it matter.
He recommends ignoring how you feel and focusing instead on what the next action should be. “Rather than telling yourself, ‘just do it,’ which can be overwhelming,” says Pychyl, “say, ‘just get started.’”
Pychyl suggests breaking down tasks into easily accomplished steps. Even completing a relatively small action will help you make progress and feel better about the task. This increases your self-esteem, which in turn reduces the desire to procrastinate to make yourself feel better, he says. Plus, this simple swap shifts your attention from your emotions to action so you can finally finish what you started.
How can procrastination be overcome?
The Power of Self-Belief | Layne Beachley | TEDxStHildasSchool
It's Friday afternoon and the clock is ticking. You're working furiously to complete a task before the five o'clock deadline, while silently cursing yourself for not starting it sooner.
How did this happen? What went wrong? Why did you lose your focus?
Well, there were the hours that you spent re-reading emails and checking social media, the excessive "preparation," the coffee breaks, and the time spent on other tasks that you could have safely left for next week.
Sound familiar? If so, you're not alone!
Procrastination is a trap that many of us fall into. In fact, according to researcher and speaker Piers Steel, 95 percent of us procrastinate to some degree. While it may be comforting to know that you're not alone, it can be sobering to realize just how much it can hold you back.
In this article and video, we look at why it happens, and we explore strategies for managing and prioritizing your workload more effectively.
Is Procrastination the Same as Being Lazy?
Procrastination is often confused with laziness, but they are very different.
Procrastination is an active process – you choose to do something else instead of the task that you know you should be doing. In contrast, laziness suggests apathy, inactivity and an unwillingness to act.
Procrastination usually involves ignoring an unpleasant, but likely more important task, in favor of one that is more enjoyable or easier.
But giving in to this impulse can have serious consequences. For example, even minor episodes of procrastination can make us feel guilty or ashamed. It can lead to reduced productivity and cause us to miss out on achieving our goals.
If we procrastinate over a long period of time, we can become demotivated and disillusioned with our work, which can lead to depression and even job loss, in extreme cases.
How to Overcome Procrastination
As with most habits, it is possible to overcome procrastination. Follow the steps below to help you to deal with and prevent procrastination:
Step 1: Recognize That You're Procrastinating
You might be putting off a task because you've had to re-prioritize your workload. If you're briefly delaying an important task for a genuinely good reason, then you aren't necessarily procrastinating. However, if you start to put things off indefinitely, or switch focus because you want to avoid doing something, then you probably are.
You may also be procrastinating if you:
Powerful Personal Branding | Ann Bastianelli | TEDxWabashCollege
- Fill your day with low-priority tasks.
- Leave an item on your To-Do list for a long time, even though it's important.
- Read emails several times over without making a decision on what to do with them.
- Start a high-priority task and then go off to make a coffee.
- Fill your time with unimportant tasks that other people ask you to do, instead of getting on with the important tasks already on your list.
- Wait to be in "right mood," or wait for the "right time" to tackle a task.
Tip:
Take our self-test quiz, Are You a Procrastinator?, to identify how much you procrastinate.
Step 2: Work Out WHY You're Procrastinating
You need to understand the reasons why you are procrastinating before you can begin to tackle it.
For instance, are you avoiding a particular task because you find it boring or unpleasant? If so, take steps to get it out of the way quickly, so that you can focus on the aspects of your job that you find more enjoyable.
Poor organization can lead to procrastination. Organized people successfully overcome it because they use prioritized To-Do Lists and create effective schedules. These tools help you to organize your tasks by priority and deadline.
Even if you're organized, you can still feel overwhelmed by a task. Perhaps you have doubts about your ability and are worried about failing, so you put it off and seek comfort in doing work that you know that you're capable of completing.
Some people fear success as much as failure. They think that success will lead to them being swamped with requests to take on more tasks.
Surprisingly, perfectionists are often procrastinators. Often, they'd rather avoid doing a task that they don't feel they have the skills to do, than do it imperfectly.
Another major cause of procrastination is poor decision-making. If you can't decide what to do, you'll likely put off taking action in case you do the wrong thing.
What if There's Nothing Wrong With You | Susan Henkels | TEDxSedona
Warning:
For some people, procrastination is more than a bad habit; it's a sign of a serious underlying health issue. For example, ADHD, OCD, anxiety, and depression are associated with procrastination.
Also, research suggests that procrastination can be a cause of serious stress and illness. So, if you suffer from chronic or debilitating procrastination, one of these conditions could be to blame, and you should seek the advice of a trained professional.
Step 3: Adopt Anti-Procrastination Strategies
Procrastination is a habit – a deeply ingrained pattern of behavior. This means that you probably can't break it overnight. Habits only stop being habits when you avoid practicing them, so try as many of the strategies, below, as possible to give yourself the best possible chance of succeeding.
- Forgive yourself for procrastinating in the past. Studies show that self-forgiveness can help you to feel more positive about yourself and reduce the likelihood of procrastination in the future.
- Commit to the task. Focus on doing, not avoiding. Write down the tasks that you need to complete, and specify a time for doing them. This will help you to proactively tackle your work.
- Promise yourself a reward. If you complete a difficult task on time, reward yourself with a treat, such as a slice of cake or a coffee from your favorite coffee shop. And make sure you notice how good it feels to finish things!
- Ask someone to check up on you. Peer pressure works! This is the principle behind self-help groups. If you don't have anyone to ask, an online tool such as Procraster can help you to self-monitor.
- Act as you go. Tackle tasks as soon as they arise, rather than letting them build up over another day.
- Rephrase your internal dialog. The phrases "need to" and "have to," for example, imply that you have no choice in what you do. This can make you feel disempowered and might even result in self-sabotage. However, saying, "I choose to," implies that you own a project, and can make you feel more in control of your workload.
- Minimize distractions. Turn off your email and social media, and avoid sitting anywhere near a television while you work!
- Aim to "eat an elephant beetle" first thing, every day! Get those tasks that you find least pleasant out of the way early. This will give you the rest of the day to concentrate on work that you find more enjoyable.
- Reprogramming your brain to overcome fear: Olympia LePoint at TEDxPCC
Tip:
An alternative approach is to embrace "the art of delay." Research shows that "active procrastination" – that is, deliberately delaying getting started on something so you can focus on other urgent tasks – can make you feel more challenged and motivated to get things done. This strategy can work particularly well if you are someone who thrives under pressure.
However, if you do decide to actively procrastinate, be sure to avoid putting your co-workers under any unnecessary, unpleasant and unwanted pressure!
If you're procrastinating because you find a task unpleasant, try to focus on the "long game." Research shows that impulsive people are more likely to procrastinate because they are focused on short-term gain. Combat this by identifying the long-term benefits of completing the task. For instance, could it affect your annual performance review or end-of-year bonus?
Another way to make a task more enjoyable is to identify the unpleasant consequences of avoiding it. For instance, what will happen if you don't complete the work? How might it affect your personal, team or organizational goals?
At the same time, it can be useful to reframe the task by looking at its meaning and relevance. This will increase its value to you and make your work more worthwhile. It's also important to acknowledge that we can often overestimate the unpleasantness of a task. So give it a try! You may find that it's not as bad as you thought, after all!
If you procrastinate because you're disorganized, here are six strategies to help you get organized:
- Keep a To-Do List. This will prevent you from "conveniently" forgetting about those unpleasant or overwhelming tasks.
- Prioritize your To-Do List using Eisenhower's Urgent/Important Principle. This will enable you to quickly identify the activities that you should focus on, as well as the ones you can ignore.
- Become a master of scheduling and project planning. If you have a big project or multiple projects on the go and you don't know where to start, these tools can help you to plan your time effectively, and reduce your stress levels.
- Tackle the hardest tasks at your peak times. Do you work better in the morning or the afternoon? Identify when you're most effective, and do the tasks that you find most difficult at these times.
- Set yourself time-bound goals. Setting yourself specific deadlines to complete tasks will keep you on track to achieve your goals, and will mean that you have no time for procrastination!
- Use task- and time-management apps. There are numerous apps designed to help you to be more organized, such as Trello and Toggl, for example.
- Fear is an Illusion | Frank Shamrock | TEDxSugarLand
If you're prone to delaying projects because you find them overwhelming, try breaking them down into more manageable chunks. Organize your projects into smaller tasks and focus on starting them, rather than on finishing them.
In his 2011 book, "The Procrastination Cure," Jeffery Combs suggests tackling tasks in 15-minute bursts of activity. Alternatively, you can create an Action Plan to organize your project. Start with quick and small tasks first. These "small wins" will give you a sense of achievement, and will make you feel more positive and less overwhelmed by the larger project or goal that you are working towards.
Finally, if you think that you are putting something off because you can't decide what action to take or you find it hard to make decisions, take a look at our range of decision-making tools to help you to develop your decision-making skills.
Key Points
Procrastination is the habit of delaying an important task, usually by focusing on less urgent, more enjoyable, and easier activities instead. It is different from laziness, which is the unwillingness to act.
Procrastination can restrict your potential and undermine your career. It can also disrupt teamwork, reduce morale, and even lead to depression and job loss. So, it's crucial to take proactive steps to prevent it.
The first step to overcoming procrastination is to recognize that you're doing it. Then, identify the reasons behind your behavior and use appropriate strategies to manage and overcome it.
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