Hi,

I’m in the final year of my PhD, and have struggled with perfectionism and procrastination related to an anxiety condition throughout my program. While it’s been difficult, I’ve always been able to push through it in the past to get the work done, but that’s becoming increasingly harder. I can usually research and note1take just fine, but when it comes to drafting I get so anxious about whether it will be ‘good enough’ that I will do anything but write.

I try to set small goals - eg working for just 5 minutes - or rewards for getting things done, or using pomodoros, or having. A schedule, but more often than not I ignore all these strategies and while away hours on the internet and by the end of the day I feel guilty and miserable, and the fear of never finishing feels stronger because of my lack of progress.

I do genuinely want to finish, I have spent too much effort on it to pull out now. And while it’s tempting to quit to avoid these feelings of writing guilt, I think they’ll only be displaced by sense of failure. Each day I intend to write but cannot get my behavior to follow suit. I’m seeing a psychologist in a month who will hopefully help me work through the underlying issues, but I’m wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences during the PhD, and how you tackled them?