Procrastination can make you feel like you’re caught in a never-ending cycle of stress, overwhelm, guilt, and frustration. You might find yourself feeling paralyzed or unable to take action as deadlines approach—feeding a cycle of avoidance. While it’s common to feel stuck sometimes, procrastination can also be driven by deeper psychological factors, such as fear of failure. In some cases, your habits may be a result of an underlying mental health condition like depression, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
OCD can contribute to anxiety, perfectionism, and decision paralysis—all of which can make it difficult to complete tasks in a timely and efficient manner. While navigating OCD and procrastination habits can be tough, there are ways to address these issues with the right strategies—improving your productivity, and reducing feelings of shame.
What is procrastination?
Procrastination typically refers to intentionally delaying or postponing the start of an important activity, decision, or task—despite knowing that there are negative consequences to doing so. Common examples may include putting off studying for an exam until the night before, avoiding a difficult conversation with a romantic partner, or delaying completing a work project until the last minute. For many, procrastination isn’t just about poor time management or simply “being lazy.” It can be a complex behavior rooted in deeper psychological factors or mental health conditions.
What is OCD?
OCD is a complex, chronic mental health condition driven by recurrent, intrusive thoughts, sensations, images, feelings, or urges that become obsessions. These obsessions typically cause significant distress or anxiety, and can take the form of an extreme need for things to feel perfect. As a response to obsessions, someone with OCD performs compulsions—repetitive behaviors or mental acts done in an attempt to decrease anxiety or distress.
For example, if you’re struggling with OCD obsessions and compulsions that center on perfectionism, you might feel the need to perform or “fix” certain actions until they reach a standard of perfection—which can feel impossible to attain. You may obsess that your communication style isn’t good enough and spend hours rewriting seemingly simple emails, in an effort to make it perfect. Or, you might delay even starting an email out of fear that it won’t meet your standards. These concerns can be highly time-consuming, making it difficult to accomplish tasks.
How does OCD cause procrastination?
Anxiety and avoidance
Both OCD and procrastination are characterized by anxiety and rumination. OCD anxieties often center around fears of making mistakes, not meeting expectations, or facing consequences for imperfect actions. These overwhelming fears can result in avoidance, as a coping mechanism.
In contrast to popular misconceptions about OCD that associate the condition with excessive cleanliness, fears of performing tasks incorrectly can seriously inhibit a person’s ability to complete important daily routines—like cleaning, washing, or feeding yourself. These anxieties can also take a toll on your ability to engage in more pleasurable activities.
“OCD may lead individuals to avoid passions that were part of their life, like painting, writing, singing, or playing an instrument,” says MaryBeth Overstreet, a licensed therapist, MA, LPC. “When unrealistic goals/standards are not met, [it can cause] guilt, shame and frustration.”
Perfectionism
Many of us strive for high standards, especially when it comes to tasks, activities, or decisions that we know will be evaluated by someone we respect. However, aiming for perfectionism can become harmful, especially when you’re dealing with OCD. People navigating perfectionism OCD may:
- Worry about making mistakes, constantly overthinking small details and fearing major negative consequences.
- Engage in checking, continuously reviewing work or tasks after they’ve been completed to ensure they were done “correctly.”
- Avoid tasks or decisions, out of fear of failure.
- Over-prepare or overwork, spending longer than is necessary on a task or project, in an effort to achieve perfection.
- Engage in mental compulsions, such as reviewing or replaying situations to ensure that they feel perfect.
“People with OCD want to be certain that others will not judge them,” says Overstreet. “This can cause someone to spend hours perfecting a lot of things [including] projects, meals, emails, texts, and how they are viewed socially.”
Decision paralysis
Anxiety and concerns about perfectionism can also contribute to decision paralysis—a common experience where you feel stuck when confronted with the choices in front of you. For people with OCD, decision paralysis can happen with big choices or small ones, like career opportunities, deciding what to eat, or even planning something as simple as what you’re going to wear on a given day.
OCD contributes to problems with decision-making by causing excessive worry and doubt. If you have OCD, you might feel intense fear about making the “wrong” decision because your mind inflates potential negative outcomes—or you feel an exaggerated sense of responsibility for others. In some cases, choices may feel tough, simply because of the extreme discomfort many people with OCD feel when confronted with uncertainty. All of these concerns can slow or halt the decision-making process.
How to stop procrastinating
Procrastination can affect almost every area of your life, from your career and academic performance to your relationships. Identifying potential causes for your tendency to procrastinate can be important for figuring out next steps to address the issue. In time, you can find strategies that work for you—whether that’s developing better time management skills and techniques for accomplishing tasks, resisting perfectionism, or seeking support from a therapist.
Develop time management skills
It can be helpful to budget time in advance for specific tasks, and organize your calendar accordingly. For example, you might block out an hour to clean your room, allot 30 minutes to respond to emails, or realize you need two hours to exercise, shower, and dress before starting work. Time management can help you add structure to your day and avoid getting distracted.
Becoming an expert in time management may be a gradual process—especially if you’re dealing with mental health concerns that make it harder to stay on track. Start small, with realistic goals, and be gentle with yourself. A basic to-do list or a planner can help you map out your intentions.
Break down big projects into smaller tasks
If you’re struggling with a large assignment or decision, breaking it down into smaller, more manageable tasks can help reduce overwhelm, and make it easier to get started. For example, if you know you need to clean your entire house, start small with the room you’re least daunted by. After you’ve accomplished one room, treat yourself to a timed break. Afterward, you can move on to another room, before taking another break, and so on. Smaller tasks can make it easier to stay motivated, while avoiding overwhelm.
Set realistic goals
You may be setting unachievable goals and standards for yourself, especially if you deal with OCD. “OCD lies to people and tells them that they will be a failure…if they do not follow unrealistic goals,” Overstreet says. “OCD can convince people that making mistakes is not okay, but …making mistakes helps you learn, and that [is] part of life.”
Whether it’s in your career, personal life, or self-image, it’s important to set realistic standards and expect that you’ll make mistakes from time to time. After all, you’re only human, and it’s important not to let perfection inhibit good work.
Consider ERP therapy
If you think your OCD is driving your procrastination, consider reaching out to a therapist who specializes in exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy. ERP is a highly effective, evidence-based form of therapy specialized for treating OCD. It works by slowly introducing you to situations that trigger your intrusive thoughts, while teaching you to resist the urge to perform compulsions.
If you’re consistently setting unrealistic goals for yourself as a result of perfectionism OCD, ERP can help by slowly teaching you to confront the discomfort of imperfection. This might involve setting goals with your ERP therapist that are less rigid, such as aiming for “good enough.” Or, you might focus on allowing yourself to leave less important tasks temporarily incomplete. As you move through these exercises, your therapist will help you resist performing compulsions, such as excessively checking your work, or delaying until things feel perfect. Instead, you’ll learn to sit with the discomfort of knowing that something that you started isn’t yet perfect, and may never be.
“ERP therapy…will help you learn to face your fears,” Overstreet says. She explains that in time, you’ll realize that you no longer want to live your life based on impossible standards of perfection.
Find the right OCD therapist for you
All our therapists are licensed and trained in exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), the gold standard treatment for OCD.
Key Takeaways
- OCD and procrastination often overlap—OCD commonly causes intense anxiety and concerns about perfectionism, which can cause people to delay tasks and decisions.
- Perfectionism OCD is a subtype characterized by obsessions and compulsions centered on an unattainable standard of perfection.
- You can manage procrastination by developing time management skills, breaking down big tasks into smaller ones, and setting more realistic goals.
- If you think your procrastination is driven by OCD, ERP therapy can help by teaching you to confront your triggers while resisting the urge to immediately react.