We all sometimes tend to postpone things. Each of us has had that moment at least once or twice in our lives, when the urge to procrastinate grows so drastically that you can’t even do anything. No matter how important the task due, you swirl into the endless loop of scrolling, getting glued to your phone, or doing some minor chores, only to postpone the necessary activity.

Sometimes it is not even as hard as we think, but nevertheless, we avoid active actions, trying to calm our brains down with mindless and easy options.

Of course, there are tools like The Liven app that are there to help you learn more about the phenomenon of procrastination. But here is a short list of things that can come out as negative consequences of procrastination. Get to know what they are before you fall into the loop of procrastination!

Anxiety

Anxiety is a state that comes hand in hand with procrastination. You worry about not doing an important thing—and voila, the anxiety is already there. You don’t start a task because you don’t believe you will be able to accomplish it successfully, and the procrastination is there again, making your heart race, mixing up your thoughts, and leaving you all confused and nervous.

As stated in the Liven app review, procrastination can be beaten with special programs and techniques, but if you don’t pay attention to it in time, anxiety can become your companion of a bad kind.

Overthinking

Ruminating thoughts are the direct sequence of knowing that you are doing something wrong. When you procrastinate, it is clear to you that something is not going as intended; you have to do one thing, but instead you are totally into another. Even if it is a useful activity, it still has to be performed on time. For example, when you have to write a report for work, but do your dishes instead, this might come as a good thing to do, but deep inside, you will still know that you are not doing the right thing. This whole experience brings you to questioning your willpower, level of responsibility, and many more things that wouldn’t arise if you did what you ought to.

Overthinking might sound like a minor issue, but it can grow and turn into a real obstacle to a happy and calm life.

Chronic stress

There is no need to point out the tension procrastination causes. It can come out as anxiety and overthinking described above, as well as many other consequences, but altogether, they form a huge negative factor—constant stress. A person who procrastinates often can’t stay calm. They feel the burden of neglected responsibility and stress over it. Or, one can worry a lot about postponing an important task, because ‘later’ often means ‘never’.

Hence, constant stress becomes another unpleasant companion of procrastination that is hard to get rid of.

Low self-esteem and self-blame

This lies on the surface, but let’s face it one more time: never accomplishing the tasks on your to-do list inevitably leads to low self-esteem. You don’t consider yourself successful or capable of doing something valuable if you give up even on the tiny tasks. Unfortunately, procrastination can grow from a harmful, but temporary activity to a whole negative cycle that repeats itself again and again, making you lose faith in yourself. Self-blame usually comes from a realization that you are ignoring something valuable and important. No matter who you report to, there is always a powerful critic by your side, and it is yourself. So, even if you try to find some excuses for postponing what you have to do, deep in your heart you always know that the one who’s guilty, in the end, is you.

Depression

Although we might think that procrastination is just a bad habit and it can’t seriously affect us, in reality, its long-term effect might turn out very harmful. For example, depression is a possible outcome of constantly postponing things. How come?

One unfinished task after another, they pile up and create a burden that the procrastinator has to carry. And when it gets too heavy to handle, there comes depression. 

It is a serious and totally real diagnosis you might get, which brings changes in your body. They happen chemically, so you can’t see the physical reason for feeling numb or constantly in a low mood, but it’s there, spoiling your life and making any kind of activity almost unbearable. That’s when it becomes a closed circle of negative emotions.

Fatigue

This one might come as a side effect of depression or appear on its own, and it is a physical display of feeling overwhelmed. Usually, fatigue comes when one has already been procrastinating for a while, and the postponed tasks start to feel heavy quite literally.

Negative emotions and nerve tension tire the body, while anxious thoughts exhaust the mind. 

It doesn’t always become a sign of procrastination, but fatigue might appear at some point, when the body signals you that something is wrong and needs your attention.

Final word

Procrastination is closely connected to mental health conditions that can cause discomfort in everyday life. It is not only emotional issues that might arise; procrastination can also influence how you feel physically, leading to major disorders and even causing depression.

It is always a good idea to catch up on your habits and behavioral patterns to see the changes and react to them accordingly.

If you pay attention to your well-being and care to improve your state whenever possible, procrastination will be easy to overcome. Recognizing your emotions and noticing the triggers may be the first important step to a life without procrastination, so dare to take it and live freely!