I have trouble with my school work due to procrastinating. And my anxiety always gets in the way. How do I get things done?

I've had success using timers in the past. When working through anxiety around tests or assignments, I'd set a timer for 5 minutes and try to keep myself in a distraction-free area to get the work done. Then after 5 minutes I got to choose whether I set the timer for another 5 minutes or took a 5 minute break. This trick helped me get through University!

You're not alone! I continue to a struggle with this every day, and here are three tips: 1) Break your work into tiny chunks or tasks so they are more manageable. That way you also feel good checking them off as you complete them, and you build momentum. 2) Remind yourself that you don't have to want to do something in order to start doing it. Getting out of bed each morning is my biggest accomplishment. Like exercising or forcing yourself to be social, once you start its not as bad as you were dreading. This is where having a tiny task to start with helps. 3) Allot time in your schedule to procrastinate. Whether it's one game of Candy Crush after a mini-task, or 15 minutes before you drive into a bigger task, accept that procrastination is part of your life. Better yet, instead of mindless screentime, use your procrastination time for self care, whether it's giving yourself a head massage, saying mantras, or writing in a gratitude journal.

Start small, and realistic. Set out your goal for yourself that is reasonable, the key point to school work is consistency rather than bursts of motivation and procrastination in an alternating cycle. After setting out your goals, maybe you'd like to discuss it with someone, maybe a teacher or a friend who can guide you towards making better goals or checking if your current ones are reasonable. After that you can start planning, try not to squeeze so much stuff into a day and take breaks when you feel like you need it, in case you risk burning out.

1. Make starting easy To make tasks as manageable as possible, ask yourself: "What do I have to do first to complete this task?". The answer will be a new task. If it's still too hard to do, ask again: "What is the first thing I need to do to get this done?". Do this until the answer is something trivial like "I need to move my right leg off the bed" or "I need to open an empty text document". Whenever you get stuck, simplify your current task using this technique until you find something that you can do. 2. Treat your future self with respect A mindset that helps me is to think about my future self. If your future self was another person, would you burden them with all your undone tasks? Treat tomorrow's self just as well as you'd treat a friend. For example, don't leave your stuff lying around in their (your) bedroom. You want them to wake up in the morning and be happy about the new day instead of dragged down by the chaos that has to be cleaned up. 3. Be compassionate with yourself Also, don't condemn yourself for wasting your time. You are doing your best at any given moment and letting go of the past will increase your chances of getting out of the self-sabotage trap.

Finding the reasons behind procrastination is the first step, maybe you feel like there isn't any support for failure in academics, maybe you feel disinterested on what you study, or perhaps you feel way more interested in something else and that gets all your attention. Find the why behind your studies, your own personal statement about studying. Hope it helps :D

From personal experience, I have found that having a tidy, distraction free work environment helps a lot! If it's homework, I have found that putting 30 minutes aside to disconnect from devices and distractions really helps! If you are getting anxious while doing school work, perhaps it would be a good idea to take small breaks every now and then to do some breathing exercises so that you can return to your work with a clearer mind :)

Give yourself some time which you can work, but also time where you can reward yourself afterwards. Set targets for yourself so you don't slack off and then reward yourself by watching your favourite show or playing your favourite game :)

I think it is important to talk about it, because there are actually more students than you would expect who feel - at least from time to time - the same way. Being a student myself, I've also been facing the exact same feelings that you've all just described: I felt paralyzed, I couldn't find some rest and I hated to feel that way. It still happens to me from time to time and I feel really anxious about school and about my future, but for me it was a huge relief when I first started to talk about it, because it made me realize that there are many other people who are experiencing the same thing.

I'm dyslexic, school was always a challenge for me. Either I was bored to death or totally lost. So let me ask you a couple of questions. Do you have a calendar or diary where you write your assignments? Do you sit down to try to do your work all at one time or do you take breaks? Taking breaks to do a quick guided relaxation video would really help, I know it helps me when I'm working while having anxiety. Would you like the link to some of my favorite organization resources? Would you like to have the links to some of the videos I use?

I always create a checklist when doing work. This allows me to check off every assignment as i complete them and feel more confident in completing me work and that I'm really making an impact in my work load!