Sure, there are all sorts of "techniques" one can use to diminish the anxiety, as one is facing their procrastinations.
There are the Cognitive Therapy methods of "Disputing" the automatic thoughts that are creating the anxiety in the first place.
Those other things you mention could be used as a REWARD AFTER you get the task done. But they could easily be the problem itself, and make it much worse! Why?
When one just goes ahead and FORCES oneself to do these things from the procrastination list, a form of cognitive relearning is going to happen automatically. Its a natural form of "extinction" similar to the treatment of phobias. But in my view, it is NOT behaviorism.
As we actually DO the thing we are avoiding, there is an automatic internal dialogue that happens in our brain.
For instance, I know people who have not done their taxes for a couple of years.
Generally, in their mind, they are thinking stuff like,
"its so hard, it'll take DAYS, I’ll owe money, I don't have time, I’ll do it later, I can't stand the stress of doing it, I hate the government, etc"
Now, you can go and try to fix those nutty thoughts directly.
BUT, if you just decide to FORCE yourself to START on your taxes, then your emotions are going to go CRAZY for a while. They will go up to 100%, motivated by all those irrational, catastrophic thoughts.
But, even if you don't know all the fancy details of this, if you just MAKE yourself do the taxes, then your brain starts to LEARN that doing your taxes is not so bad, and you won't die from doing it. As a matter of fact, its kind of interesting, and learning about taxes is a great way to save some money, and getting your taxes done is better than not doing them, etc, etc.
Here is the key though.
You can't take a break from that anxiety.
You have to FACE it, and allow it to go all the way.
You can't say, "oh, my anxiety is too high, I better go and meditate or surf the net".
That actually makes the problem worse.
You need to hang in there, and FACE it.
There is all sorts of theory at this point, but the bottom line is that if you do not run from your anxiety, it will diminish. We need to build a higher tolerance for discomfort, and not run away from a task just because "it makes us feel bad".
We have to do the exact opposite, and FORCE ourselves to stay with the anxiety.
What happens, is that at some point, the brain LEARNS that doing your taxes is not a terrible thing, but just a task like any other task.
We shouldn't move away from the anxiety, but move right into it.
Face the monster under the bed, and it vanishes, as it never existed in the first place.
When you feel anxiety, or any strong emotion related to procrastination, that is GOOD! Run toward that painful feeling!
Not wanting to feel that feeling is what is causing the procrastination in the first place.
Its really the same method of confronting a phobia. The only way to really do it, is to DO it, perhaps in a graded way.
Its the same as treating a panic disorder.
Folks with panic, have to learn that feeling panic, is nothing to panic about! They have to learn to feel ok with feeling some anxiety and panic!
The only way to really do this is "in vivo".
So in my view, there is no shortcut to actually DOING the thing one is avoiding, and just staying with the bad feelings, and know that if they keep at it, those feelings with implode, and even just VANISH at some point.
I have felt this myself.
At some point, if you keep doing it, those feelings of anxiety/pain just VANISH, and they don't come back.
But its not magic.
The brain has LEARNED that doing that thing is not bad, and is actually GOOD. It can learn that it can ENJOY doing that thing that it once avoided.
But the KEY is to FACE that anxiety/pain, and STAY with it over a period of time, as long as it takes. (not all in one session).
Its completely counterintuitive, which is why people can get so stuck.
There are all sorts of things one can do, like DEEP BREATHING AS YOU ARE DOING THE TASK. This relaxes you as you do it. But in my view, the real change comes from changes the Cognitions, through relearning.
Coz
jmarkey said:
Great post, Coz. I would just add that it is great to have a healthy outlet for the anxiety you can fully expect to experience when you are knocking off items on your procastination list. Certainly the best medicine is getting the item done. But to keep you fully committed, you might also think about methods, other than avoidance, to ease the anxiety. This could be meditation, exercise, surfing the web, talking with a friend, etc. (keeping in mind that this should be a means of easing anxiety rather than engaging in further procrastination).
