Rant: Anxiety Cost

This newsletter is a meta example of me demonstrating and solving anxiety cost.

It is currently 6:11 on Sunday night. This newsletter goes out in 16 hours.

I picked the topic 5 minutes ago and this is what we’re doing this week. Raw and unfiltered. I think this is more authentic anyways, I like Ali Abdaal’s newsletter where he writes from the hip.

Here’s the list of unfinished things I have to do as I sit here writing:

• Respond to Twitter DMs

• Send the podcast from last weekend to my editor

• Write this newsletter

• Clean my backyard and cut the grass

• Clean and vacuum the house

• Order a handful of dog grooming tools on Amazon

• Order baby gifts for friends

• Catch up on my to-do list from last week

• Schedule my calendar for this week

• Flesh out my work to-do list for the next two weeks

• Schedule podcast clips on TikTok

• Record a batch of self-filmed TikTok videos

That list isn’t exhaustive but I’m assuming you didn’t read it and skipped to here cause you don’t care about my to-do list. Good job, I wouldn’t care either 😂

Okay I’ll get to the point…

I can feel how anxious I am because of the huge stack of tasks in front of me.

Side note: this is why most people suck at to-do lists, pick 3 important things for a day max. My list is a consequence of travelling for work this week which throws me out of routine and thus creates a larger stack than normal.

Anxiety Cost: The mental price you pay for avoiding what it is you know you need to do.

I know exactly how to decrease my anxiety, it’s by completing things on the list so I can stop thinking about them. Fascinating piece of psychology around this called the Zeigarnik effect too.

The mental burden you place on yourself for procrastinating can be greater than the real world consequences of procrastination.

Even the biggest procrastinators in the world can usually find a way to accomplish the task they need to given a short time constraint. Parkinson’s law. But… It is possible to put yourself in a negative thought spiral by ignoring the things on your plate.

I’ve done a fair amount of journaling in the last couple years.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the only thing that brings me much anxiety anymore is procrastination. I’m the architect of my own misery.

So next time you’re feeling anxious, maybe see if there are some big things on your to-do list that you’re avoiding.