People often procrastinate because they’re afraid of failing at the tasks that they need to complete. Furthermore, certain personality traits, such as low self-esteem and low self-confidence, are associated with an increased fear of failure, which makes people who have these traits more likely to procrastinate.

It’s true that most of us see procrastination as a bad thing, and it’s not difficult to find hundreds of articles or books telling us how to cure or overcome this flaw. But as Paul Graham says, strictly speaking, it’s impossible to cure procrastination: No matter what you work on, you’re not working on everything else.

Following are some practical solutions to help you to stop procrastinating.

1. Discover Why You’re Procrastinating.
2. Break It Down Into Small Steps.
3. Set Deadlines.
4. Use Positive Social Pressure.
5. Make Boring Tasks Appealing.
6. Rotate Between Two Tasks.
7. Make a Small Time Commitment.
8. Limit Distractions.

New evidence suggests that procrastination doesn’t just hurt your work, it may also seriously damage your health. A recent study indicates that chronic procrastination may make people more vulnerable to serious health conditions, like cardiovascular disease and hypertension.

Overall, we procrastinate because our self-control and motivation, which might be hindered by factors such as exhaustion and rewards that are far in the future, are outweighed by negative factors, such as anxiety and fear of failure.

Here is a list of just some of the Proverbs about procrastination: A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. –Proverbs 10:4. Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.

Feeling Overwhelmed Procrastination can be a sign that you simply don’t know where to begin. Putting things off may temporarily make you feel better, but in the long run it will most likely add more stress and anxiety to your life.

So, procrastination essentially puts your brain in its happy place. And if you keep it up, researchers have found that chronic procrastination is linked to: low self-confidence, Low energy, And depression. Overall, your quality of life will probably be worse, than if you just listened to your prefrontal cortex.

If you procrastinate too much with something, it will most likely start to stress you out and cause anxiety, especially when other people or things are involved, and all of this can lead to poor health outcomes.

You might postpone a meeting because of a schedule conflict, or to give yourself time to prepare. Procrastinating becomes a problem only when it hinders your relationships or getting your work done. For about one in five adults, procrastination is a real, long-lasting problem.

Nancy Schimelpfening, Verywell.com’s expert on depression, also offers the following tips to help deal with procrastination:

1. Make a list of tasks and prioritize what needs to be done.
2. Reward yourself for completing difficult tasks.
3. Use relaxation strategies to deal with anxiety about completing tasks.

How to Recognize Anxiety-Induced Procrastination

1. When you’re blaming someone else for your inaction.
2. When you’re anxious about a task you have a lot of experience doing successfully.
3. When anxiety about a small aspect of a project is blocking your progress on the whole thing.
4. When you feel strong resentment about having to do the task at all.