Self-sabotaging patterns maintain a cycle of always having too much to do, or at least feeling like that’s the case, writes Alice Boyes. She examines the problems and proposes solutions.
You’ve left an important task undone for weeks. It’s hanging over you, causing daily anxiety. And yet instead of actually doing it, you do a hundred other tasks instead.
Source: Harvard Business Review, September 20, 2018. Link. Boyes offers discussion in the following four areas:
- You keep ploughing away without stepping back and prioritizing
- You completely overlook easy solutions for getting things done
- You “kick the can down the road” instead of creating better systems for solving recurring problems
- You use avoid or escape methods for coping with anxiety.