This is Part 3 of our mini-serious aimed at improving organisation skills. Click here for Part 1. In part 3 we discuss ‘Task Anxiety’.
When I was growing up, and during my 20s, I had great trouble trying to do jobs, chores and homework/essays etc. In fact, when I tried to work on an essay that I found difficult, I would find that I couldn’t do the work. This was because as I tried to read books in preparation for an essay, I would find that my mind would go completely blank. I would stare at the page and find that no information would pass into my mind. It was as though my brain had ‘switched off’.
I believe this was my mind’s response to feeling traumatised by the task I was trying to do.
Once my mind had gone ‘blank’, I could no longer do the task. It was as though my brain was so stressed it was just blocking out any external information. There was nothing I could do in these circumstances to override the problem.
A few years ago I decided to do some research into this phenomenon. I used questionnaires to find out if other people suffered from the same kinds of problems. And I found that, just like me, some people suffer from severe anxiety when they have to do jobs and tasks. Here's what I discovered about people who suffer from what I call 'Task Anxeity'.
When you see a child getting panicked, you will notice that it can often become near impossible to reason with her. We often have to separate her from the situation momentarily. Then we try to calm her as best we can. Once she is calm she is better able to listen to reason again. And this, I suggest, is how we should respond to Task Anxiety.
Once panic kicks in, it can be very difficult to reason with ourselves. Perhaps we need to take some time to sit down and think about how we are feeling. Then we can try to calm ourselves. Once we have calmed ourselves, we are then in a position to try and face the feelings we are struggling with.
Once my mind had gone ‘blank’, I could no longer do the task. It was as though my brain was so stressed it was just blocking out any external information. There was nothing I could do in these circumstances to override the problem.
People who score high on ‘Task Anxiety’:
- Frequently find jobs and tasks daunting and get anxious when trying to complete them.
- Get easily overwhelmed and often find their mind goes ‘completely blank’ when they are trying to do things.
Low scorers, on the other hand:
- Don’t get stressed when doing jobs and chores
- Are not fazed when lots of things are going on around them
- Do not worry about organising their affairs.
Low Scorers: ‘Sometimes tasks just feel unmanageable…’
For the person who suffers from ‘Task Anxiety’, most jobs feel like an ‘unmanageable task’. For some reason, thinking about doing tasks feels traumatic. I suggest three responses to Task Anxiety.- Face your feelings The Psychoanalytic explanation of anxiety says that when we become traumatised, our mind possesses the capacity to press difficult thoughts out of consciousness. We see this happening very clearly when the 'Task Anxious' person tries to do a task that causes her anxiety. In such circumstances, the Task Anxious person often finds that her mind goes completely blank.
The Psychoanalytic model suggests the following response.
- The Psychoanalytic remedy for anxiety is as follows. It suggests that in order to master this kind anxiety, we must slowly learn to face the pain we are feeling. The Psychoanalytic theory is that this response will enable us to become acclimatised to the difficult thoughts we are experiencing. Over time, if we continue to face our feelings, we will begin to learn to manage them better. But we must be willing to face our feelings instead of blocking them out if we are to learn to manage them.
When you see a child getting panicked, you will notice that it can often become near impossible to reason with her. We often have to separate her from the situation momentarily. Then we try to calm her as best we can. Once she is calm she is better able to listen to reason again. And this, I suggest, is how we should respond to Task Anxiety.
- Breaking the task down into pieces Personally, after I have calmed, I then begin to try to run through the task mentally.
- 'What is it that is making me feel so anxious about doing this task?'
- 'Is there some part of this task that I feel will be particularly difficult?'
- 'How can I make this part of the task easier?'
- Meditation reduces anxiety I try to reason with myself, asserting that the task is not as difficult as it might seem. However, this response is typical of a ‘thinking’ type personality. For those who don’t find such reasoning calms them, meditation may be useful. Research has shown that meditation is a powerful way of calming ourselves emotionally. For example, Mindfulness meditation has been shown to be very effective at helping reduce anxiety. It has also been shown to be effective in reducing symptoms of a number of conditions including long-term depression. If you are interested in finding out more about Mindfulness Meditation, here is a book that you might find useful: Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world, by Prof Mark Williams & Dr Danny Penman.
