I have a friend who was a get-it-done-early person in school, and still is to this day. Sometimes I tell her stories of how much I procrastinated in school and it gives her real-time anxiety.

I thought of this today because I procrastinated on a project and was a little stressed out about it. (I didn't even mean to procrastinate. Just, you know, life.)

I realized that I've trained myself to react when I start to get stressed about something. I take a breath and say, "You will get this done. You've never not got something done. It will be over in 24 hours. You've just got to make it 24 hours."

And, in more extreme cases, I say to myself, "Stressing about this is not getting it done. Slow it down, and do one thing at a time. What can I do first?" and then go from there.

I've been talking myself through my own stress for years. I never really noticed it until today, when my stress level was a little higher than my average "I procrastinated" stress. I built up this response in college and now can apply it to almost any situation I find myself in.

I don't want to tell people to procrastinate, cause that's not great. But what you should do is find the small ways to talk yourself through stress. It doesn't have to be a procrastination induced stress - this can work in most stressful situations.

The worst thing you can do is stop moving forward. Stress paralysis is real. Ya gotta work through it, friends. Find the ways you can work through it.

Eventually, it'll become second nature. I didn't have to actively talk myself through my stress. I felt it, and I did it automatically. Find what works for you and start teaching your brain how to react.