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Axios
17-07-2025
- Health
- Axios
Millions of Americans now face a devastating one-two punch on health care
Millions of low-income Americans already face the prospect of losing their health insurance, and now they're looking at another worry: lower credit scores. Why it matters: Poor credit scores not only make it harder to borrow money, but also to accomplish such basic things as land a job or rent an apartment. How it works: The Trump administration last week got a federal court to toss a Biden-era rule that would have removed medical debt from people's credit reports. At the same time, cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in the "big, beautiful bill" will likely mean people pay more for health care. The big picture: That means a single medical setback — hospitalization, broken bone, or worse — could crater people's credit scores, if it leads to unpaid bills that wind up in collection. "You really are double hammering households," says Michael Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, a consumer advocacy group. Meanwhile, other debts are also about to show up on credit reports, including delinquent student loans, after a years-long pause, and buy-now, pay-later purchases. And cuts to food stamps, or SNAP, present an additional strain. Follow the money: Some argue that it's a win for consumers who pay their bills on time to have more information on their credit reports. But the more data the credit agencies have about people, the more potential there is that consumers get hurt by negative information, says Chi Chi Wu, a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, which was on the losing side of the medical debt ruling. "It's not just you can't get a credit card, but you can't get a roof over your head." The intrigue: Because of the complexities of the U.S. health care system, it might not even be an unpaid bill that snares your credit score. Consumers routinely complained to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about medical debt errors on their credit reports, says Julie Margetta Morgan, a former associate director at the agency. Either the insurer should have paid; or the consumer already had, but it still appeared. Sometimes, debt would show up that was a mystery, says Morgan, now president of The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank. These issues can take a while to resolve, and that debt is like a "ticking time bomb," she says. "If you don't get it resolved, it will be reflected on your credit report." The CFPB's research also found that medical debt is not predictive of someone's likelihood to pay other bills. Reality check: There are reasons that the debt bomb may not fully explode here. After the CFPB drew attention to the issue, nine states banned medical debt from appearing on credit scores, including New York, Colorado and Minnesota. And the big credit-reporting firms stopped including medical debt under $500 on credit scores. Since then, the share of Americans with debt in collections has fallen. The firms do not plan on rolling back that change, according to a statement from Dan Smith, CEO of the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA), a trade group that challenged the medical debt ruling. What to watch: Medicaid cuts may not materialize. On Tuesday, Sen. Josh Hawley moved to reverse some. The NCLC hasn't yet said if it would appeal the medical debt ruling; though its odds of success are small. The other side:"Information about unpaid medical debts is an important element in assessing a consumer's ability to pay," the CDIA said in its statement.
Time Magazine
08-07-2025
- Health
- Time Magazine
The $20 Million Bet on CRISPR to Cure Rare Childhood Diseases
Rare genetic diseases are challenging for patients and their families—made all the more overwhelming because symptoms tend to appear soon after birth. To date, there haven't been many reliable treatment options for these babies. The few that do exist involve invasive and risky procedures that don't often have a high rate of success. But there is a new source of hope for many of these families: the Center for Pediatric CRISPR Cures at the University of California San Francisco. The center—plans for which were announced July 8—is a collaboration between Jennifer Doudna, director of the Innovative Genomics Institute at the University of California, Berkeley who also earned the Nobel Prize for her work in co-discovering the gene-editing technique CRISPR, and Dr. Priscilla Chan, co-CEO and co-founder of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Supported by $20 million from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the center focuses on treating rare genetic diseases in children, starting with a group of eight kids who will enroll in a clinical trial to access a CRISPR therapy designed specifically for them. Doctors and researchers, including Chan and Doudna, believe that CRISPR can be used to change and correct a range of genetic mutations and scaled up to help more patients. And the medical teams plan to start enrolling patients immediately. "We want to ensure that CRISPR-based therapies become widely available, especially for rare diseases that likely won't be the target for pharmaceutical companies," Doudna tells TIME. Read More: The 4 Words That Drive Your Doctor Up the Wall The partnership was inspired by the recent success in treating KJ Muldoon, the first baby to receive a customized CRISPR treatment. KJ was born at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with a rare genetic disease that prevents him from breaking down proteins properly. The therapy, called base-editing, replaced a faulty letter in KJ's DNA with the correct one that now lets him eat some protein. KJ's treatment represents the next phase of CRISPR-based therapies. While CRISPR treatments have been approved by the FDA to treat sickle cell disease and certain types of beta thalassemia, those therapies involve removing cells from patients, editing them with CRISPR to correct the genetic defect, and then infusing those cells back to the patients. In KJ's case, the CRISPR editing occurred in his own body, via three injections of a therapy developed just for him. That's the same model that the new center will use. 'With that story, there was a lot of momentum within our teams about whether we could do that again, and how we could learn from this to create a pipeline to reduce cost and make this therapy much more widely available,' Doudna says. Doudna thought of Chan, whose initiative has the mission of curing, preventing, or treating all diseases by the end of the century. It was an ideal match, since Chan had trained as a pediatrician at the University of California San Francisco and spent eight years treating children with rare genetic diseases after finishing medical school. 'When Jennifer called me, I thought, 'This is perfect,'' Chan tells TIME. She recalls encountering families whose babies were affected by diseases so rare that there was often little, if any, information about them. 'I have seared in my mind the image of a parent handing me a PDF that they carried around to explain to each resident that this is what we have, and this is all that we know about it. I carry that around daily.' The experience inspired her to create the Rare As One program at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a network of patients, researchers, and scientists from different disciplines that highlights the need for basic research needed to better understand these conditions in order to develop more effective treatments for them. Read More: The Surprising Reason Rural Hospitals Are Closing CRISPR, with its ability to target specific genetic mutations, holds the most promise for changing the course of such diseases. But time is of the essence. In KJ's case, the entire process of identifying his mutation, developing the treatment, testing it, and receiving FDA clearance took nine months. KJ was just six months old when he received his first CRISPR treatment. Acting that quickly is critical for conditions like these, since once cells or organs are damaged by disease-causing mutations, they can't always be rescued. The idea is to intervene with a CRISPR therapy to minimize the effects that the mutations could have. Currently, about 6,000 rare diseases affect 300 million people worldwide, and 72% of them are linked to genetic aberrations. A similar proportion primarily affect children. The new center will focus on identifying disease-causing mutations that can easily be targeted—such as in the liver, as in KJ's case. 'Jennifer and her team, and the team at UCSF, will be very careful in choosing mutations that are amenable to this treatment,' says Chan. 'Not all mutations will work well with this version of there will be a delicate balance in choosing patients who stand to benefit the most in this situation.' Patients will join a clinical trial to receive the treatment, and the research team will study them to learn from their experiences and continue to improve the treatment and the process. Read More: Why It's So Hard to Have Your Fertility Tested In the first cases that the center will try to treat, the FDA will consider each treatment on its own and decide whether to approve the customized therapy for that particular patient. But, says Doudna, 'as we continue to get more information on the safety and potential risks of CRISPR for different indications, what is emerging is the potential to designate CRISPR as a platform technology.' That means that if regulators approve the framework of the CRISPR gene-editing process, doctors would not need to conduct animal tests for each new CRISPR therapy designed for a patient. The only thing that would change would be the guide RNA, Doudna says, which carries the genetic instructions for finding the specific mutation that needs to be addressed. 'Even there, most of the guide RNA stays the same, and it's just the piece at the end providing the molecular zip code that changes.' Key to making that happen will be advances in other scientific areas, including using AI to predict how changing specific genes will affect a cell's function and what potential health outcomes a CRISPR-based treatment might have. That work is ongoing separately at places like Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and elsewhere, says Chan. Eventually, says Doudna, 'we hope as the process moves forward, it will be possible to both predict clinical outcomes of CRISPR therapies accurately and ensure that by changing just a little part of the guide RNA, everything else will remain the same, so you don't have to do full-blown animal testing for every single iteration of CRISPR. If that becomes possible, then it will make CRISPR a lot cheaper and a lot faster to test these kinds of therapies.' That would make it available for many more patients as well.
The Star
17-06-2025
- Business
- The Star
Cooperation between China, region becomes increasingly important
When President Xi Jinping hosted the first China-Central Asia Summit in the ancient Chinese city of Xi'an in 2023, it marked a pivotal moment in relations between the world's second-largest economy and the Eurasian heartland. In recent years, the strategic significance of Central Asia has surged, with five nations — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — assuming an increasingly important role in Eurasia's evolving geopolitical and economic landscape. Amid this changing landscape, China has emerged as the region's reliable partner, building a web of connectivity, security cooperation and strategic dialogue that is promoting the development of Eurasia. Central Asia's rise to global prominence stems from both geography and resources. Straddling the routes between East Asia, the Middle East and Europe, the region is central to facilitating transcontinental trade. It is also rich in energy, minerals and untapped market potential. It's also a vital corridor for the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. Central Asia has been an important partner in the initiative since its launch in 2013. New highways, railways, pipelines, logistics centers and customs corridors have been built or expanded to bridge China's western provincial-level regions with Europe, via Central Asia. The China-Europe freight train, a key symbol of the BRI, passes through cities like Almaty and Tashkent, transforming them into emerging transit hubs. These infrastructure projects are not merely about moving goods; they are about building interdependence. With upgraded ports of entry such as Khorgos and modern rail links like the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway now in development, the region is becoming a critical artery for trans-Eurasian commerce. For China, this helps reduce reliance on maritime routes and diversifies access to key markets. For Central Asia, it opens the door to global trade and investment on a scale never seen before. Ma Bin, a researcher at Fudan University's Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies, said the rapid development of connectivity projects has become a hallmark of the mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Central Asian countries. As a result, trade facilitation between China and Central Asia has advanced markedly, Ma said. More important, the growing web of logistics infrastructure is helping Central Asian countries overcome the geographic constraints of being landlocked at the heart of the Eurasian region, he noted. Enhanced links with China, the European Union, the Middle East and Southeast Asia are laying a solid foundation for Central Asia's increased integration with major economic regions, the researcher said. Trade between China and Central Asia reached a record high of $94.8 billion last year, with China's cumulative investment in the region exceeding $30 billion. China is now Central Asia's top trading partner and major investment source. The emerging electric vehicle sector has become a highlight in China's economic and trade cooperation with Central Asian countries. In 2023, some 63,000 electric passenger vehicles rolled out of China through the Khorgos port, an astonishing year-on-year increase of 585.6 percent. Among them, 51,000 EVs were exported specifically to the five Central Asian countries, marking a 608.5 percent surge compared with the previous year. Chinese-branded EVs are rapidly gaining traction in markets across Central Asia. Key partners Security is another area where cooperation has increased significantly. China and the Central Asian countries share concerns about cross-border terrorism, extremism and organized crime. Joint exercises, intelligence coordination and law enforcement collaboration are now regular features of the regional landscape. Through platforms such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, China has helped shape a multilateral framework for regional stability that aligns closely with its principle of noninterference while promoting shared interests in peace and order. Education and cultural exchanges are becoming new pillars of engagement. Thousands of Central Asian students now study at Chinese universities, many on full scholarships. Academic cooperation, including Chinese language programs and vocational training, is expanding across the region. Such efforts, though less visible than roads or pipelines, are crucial for cultivating long-term trust and mutual understanding between generations. In a world often defined by fragmentation and rivalry, the steady strengthening of ties between China and Central Asia offers a different story — one where geography becomes a bridge rather than a barrier, and where cooperation, not competition, shapes the future. - China Daily/ANN
Boston Globe
12-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Trump tariffs are a rude awakening for border cities that bet on trade
Since the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, took effect in 1994, the region has grown into a $250 billion economic machine. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'It's a third country,' Rafael Fernández de Castro, head of the Center for US-Mexican Studies at the University of California at San Diego, said of the binational entity that has arisen, combining cultures and economies. Advertisement Mexican officials are cautiously optimistic that the region will survive the onslaught of US tariffs, in part because many products are shielded by the free trade agreement. But jobs could disappear in both countries if tariffs disrupt a system of co-production that has sent car parts, airplane components and medical equipment zipping back and forth over the border. The uncertainty of the on-again, off-again tariffs has prompted many companies to pause investments. Confusion reigns over which products will qualify for the free-trade exemption, with the vital car-manufacturing industry widely expected to take a hit. And Trump may not be finished layering tariffs on Mexico. On Thursday, he threatened more, because of what he called the country's failure to observe an 81-year-old water-sharing treaty. Advertisement 'We've lived 30 years under a nontariff, free-trade environment,' said Ernesto J. Bravo, a senior manager at Tecma, a firm providing logistical, customs and administrative services to export-oriented firms along the border. 'All that is now changing dramatically.' Trump imposed the tariffs in part to shore up US industry and drive more manufacturing jobs to the United States. It could take months for the effects to become clear - and some might not be what the US leader expected. Kenia Zamarripa, a vice president at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, worries that the measures could push up the price of steel, lumber and medical instruments - making it harder to build or run hospitals in California. 'Those things we have been promised as reasons to invest in the region are now at risk,' Zamarripa said. Ernesto J. Bravo, a top executive at Tecma, in his warehouse in San Diego on Wednesday. His firm helps exporting businesses with logistics and customs. He says Trump's tariffs have whipsawed the border region. Mary Beth Sheridan/TWP The moment tariffs became real Border residents have survived bouts of economic turbulence. In 2017, after Trump was first inaugurated, he insisted on a renegotiation of NAFTA, calling it 'the worst trade deal ever made.' The free-trade accord was largely preserved in its replacement: the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, USMCA. Two years later, Trump warned he'd impose crushing tariffs unless Mexico cracked down on US-bound migrants. It complied, and he dropped the threats. Then came the covid-19 pandemic. But those were nothing compared with this time. Normally, Bravo's firm sends 400 to 800 truckloads of goods across the border each week - everything from furniture to TVs to water-treatment equipment. But recently, the free-trade system screeched to a halt. Advertisement Trump had pledged to slap 25 percent tariffs on all goods from Mexico in February unless it reduced the flow of fentanyl and migrants to the United States. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum persuaded him to hold off for a month, while she rushed troops to the border. In early March, she won another month-long reprieve - but a few days passed before it kicked in. In the meantime, a 25 percent tariff descended on Mexican exports. 'It was a major impact and a major wake-up call to the industry that, 'Hey - this is very real,'' said Bravo. He sent only about a dozen trucks over the border in that period. Since then, Trump has narrowed the 25 percent tariff. He says it won't apply to products that qualify for duty-free treatment under the USMCA. The trouble is that's only around half of Mexico's exports. Even for eligible goods, many companies did not go through the trouble of shipping under USMCA, with its paperwork and requirements for quantities of North American components, opting instead to ship under low- or zero-tariff rules set by the World Trade Organization. Now, they're scrambling. It's one thing to switch a basic item, like avocados, from one set of rules to the other. But a car might have 10,000 unique parts, each with its own customs code, Bravo said. Manufacturers of electrical, communications and auto goods are being forced to investigate the origin of each part, even those purchased in Mexico. They're hunting for substitutes in North America for components made in China to be able to export duty-free. Advertisement The medical-instruments industry, a major manufacturer in the Tijuana area, is already warning of price hikes for critical items such as pacemakers and insulin pumps. Mexico could grab market share from China Despite the new obstacles, some Mexican politicians say the country may benefit from the tariffs - because China is facing even higher ones. Adriana Eguía is vice president of Vesta, an industrial real estate firm. She's typical of the bilingual, bicultural managers in the export industry. She grew up on the Mexican side of the border, married an American and lives in San Diego. She works from a stylish penthouse office with a sweeping view of Tijuana. In February and March, she saw little business, as Trump imposed trade measures that affected Mexico: the tariffs over fentanyl and migration, a 25 percent global tariff on steel and aluminum, and a similar tax on auto imports. (Vehicles from North America will be taxed only on the non-US parts.) Adriana Eguía, vice president of a Mexican industrial real estate firm, in her office overlooking Tijuana on Wednesday. She says she's hopeful Trump's tariffs will eventually help Mexico, since they're less than those imposed on China. Mary Beth Sheridan/TWP Then came his tariffs on China - which jumped from 54 percent to 104 percent, then 145 percent. 'The last three days have been crazy,' Eguía said. More than a half-dozen clients suddenly appeared at her office, trying to secure industrial properties. Most represented Chinese firms, she said, presumably looking to manufacture under the terms of the free-trade treaty. Three miles away, in an aging, gritty factory tucked into a modest Tijuana neighborhood, René Romandía is dreaming big. He's run a variety of manufacturing businesses over the years - making bodyboards, face masks during the pandemic, packaging materials. It's been a struggle; the Chinese government subsidizes many industries, which export a flood of cheap goods. 'This moment is completely different,' Romandía said. 'Because now we can compete on price against China.' Advertisement His phone rang. Trump had just hiked tariffs - again. 'Fifty percent more on China! Okay, papi,' Romandía said and put the phone down. He grinned. 'It's like, when the two giants are fighting and you are just watching them fight,' he said. 'We are getting benefits.' Still, it's unclear how much Mexico could benefit from the tariffs. One big unknown: whether the Trump administration will subject components to potential tariffs every time they cross the border. That could be ruinous for industries like autos and medical instruments. Mexico is trying to negotiate an exemption for such co-production. Sheinbaum's government has said it wants to seize this moment to develop more Mexican-made parts, to supplant imports from China and elsewhere. But the government is burdened by a 6 percent fiscal deficit, the highest in decades, and businesses have said they're wary of investing after Sheinbaum introduced a judicial reform that many say will politicize the justice system. Ultimately, many people in the border region say the close US-Mexico trade relationship is likely to endure, since it benefits Americans, too - helping US firms stay competitive globally, and providing consumers with lower prices. This week more than 100 officials and business leaders from San Diego and Tijuana traveled to Washington to lobby - as one region. 'We're super far away from both capitals, and things are done differently here,' said Eguía. 'We have this hybrid culture.' Ernesto Eslava in Tijuana and Valentina Muñoz Castillo in Mexico City contributed to this report.
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
How to finally stop procrastinating, according to people who have kicked the habit
Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being. Sam Dylan Finch was 27 years old when he reached a breaking point. Having dealt with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and procrastination for much of his life, Finch was proud he'd earned enough trust to be offered a director's position at a company whose mission he deeply cared about, he said. Finch was eager to do the best he possibly could, he added, but it wasn't long before he froze. 'As much as I cared about what I was doing, that almost made it worse,' said Finch, now a 33-year-old writer, content creator and ADHD peer support coach based in Minneapolis. 'Even the thought of deciding what to wear, putting a breakfast together and figuring out how to order all of my tasks and prioritizing which things were most important — it just felt like there was such a large cognitive load and so much external pressure that I basically responded by collapsing.' Finch often stayed in bed until just one minute before his first video meeting of the day. After it was over, he'd crawl back into bed as he cried over not understanding why his dream job had turned into a nightmare he just couldn't push through, he said. Those circumstances eventually turned into the worst depression he'd ever experienced. 'I was no longer just getting things through in the eleventh hour,' Finch said. 'I was just blowing past deadlines, and … I was not recovering the way that I used to be able to.' With the threat of job loss, fear of failure, and a concerned and frustrated partner, Finch faced a life that felt so unmanageable he could no longer get out of bed, he recalled. He knew he couldn't live that way anymore — but how he could improve was another challenge. Procrastinating, or intentionally putting off necessary tasks, is something everyone does from time to time, said Robin Nordmeyer, founder and managing director of the Center for Living Well with ADHD and an ADHD coach. But some people can develop a chronic tendency, ending up in a hamster wheel of tasks they can't ever seem to finish. Repeatedly not following through on tasks you know you can do can also lead to other problems — self-esteem issues, depression, anxiety, relational discord and even an increased risk of physical health problems, said Dr. Fuschia Sirois, professor of social and health psychology at Durham University in England. Those ailments can include flus or colds, insomnia, digestive issues, and cardiovascular problems. That vulnerability to illness is likely due to the stress procrastination causes, Sirois added, and the behavior can lead someone to not prioritizing healthy lifestyle habits that reduce the risk of disease. Here's how you can break the cycle. Emotion regulation has been identified as the core reason why people procrastinate, Sirois said. When a responsibility triggers negative emotions and you're unequipped to manage those feelings internally, externally managing them by delaying the task can provide instant relief. That's why overcoming procrastination should start with exploring what it is about certain tasks that make you want to avoid them, Sirois added. Exploring and implementing practical strategies is important but should be addressed only after you understand the root cause of the behavior. The emotions people seek to regulate with procrastination can have roots in several different categories of issues. After years of procrastinating since elementary school, Paige Mariah Delaney, a marketing manager and content creator in Chicago, realized around age 28 that the pattern was her brain's way of protecting her from the discomfort of potential imperfection or failure — a common reason, experts told CNN. Until Delaney was honest with herself about her behavior and how it affected her life — to the extent of experiencing panic attacks — she had convinced herself that she simply worked better under pressure. 'I think we just tell ourselves things to make us feel better, when, in fact, I do not work better under pressure,' Delaney, 32, said. 'I would do it fast, but it wasn't my best quality work.' Another common contributor is a sense of defiance or resistance to demands from others, according to experts. That was the case for Finch, who, with a therapist's help, realized his procrastination was also partly due to unresolved trauma from having grown up in an authoritarian environment where he had little agency, he said. For some, procrastination results from a mental health disorder such as depression, or especially a neurodevelopmental disorder such as ADHD, experts said. That's because ADHD stems from underdeveloped or impaired executive function or self-regulation skills, which aid planning, focusing and sustaining attention, remembering instructions, and multitasking. The brain of a neurodivergent person is wired for passions and novelty, which trigger the motivation to start and stay engaged with that interesting task, Nordmeyer said. When a duty or activity isn't exciting, that executive dysfunction kicks in. Poor emotion regulation is another 'core defining diagnostic criteria' for the disorder, Sirois said. All these factors can make various tasks, even the most basic ones such as brushing your teeth, feel much more daunting than they are. Journaling and working with a therapist can help you determine what your reasons are for avoiding obligations. Similarly, every individual also must develop the coping, time- and task-management strategies that work best for them, sources said. Here's a list of tools you could experiment with, based on professional advice and what has worked for Finch and Delaney. Change your motivators and reward yourself during and after tasks. Finch historically used self-criticism, pressure, and the odds of upsetting other people or losing his job to motivate himself to complete a task — only to later realize that made him deeply unhappy and burned out. He had to figure out what kinds of positive supports would make him care more and feel excitement about working on a task. Those adjustments have included listening to soothing music while he's watering his plants, for example, and sometimes leaving his gaming console in the kitchen to urge him to get out of bed earlier to have a little playtime before work. Other rewards can be chatting with a friend while folding laundry or going to a unique grocery store to make shopping more enticing, experts said. Work with a mental health professional. They can help you tailor strategies to your tendencies and needs. The therapies that made the biggest difference for Finch were the safe and sound protocol, which targets the nervous system via music, and somatic therapy, a mind-body healing method for trauma recovery. Create a schedule. Without one, an aimless day can lead to overwhelm and delaying responsibilities, sources said. Try planning out your days — each morning or at the beginning of the week — Delaney suggested, and listing the necessary steps of each task. Finch loves the app Routinery for gamified task management, he said. Allow yourself to start imperfectly, and work on tasks piecemeal. Both approaches have been critical for Delaney. Not knowing everything from the start is OK, and you can always improve your work later. Delaney also follows what she calls the two-minute rule: committing to do just two minutes of work often turns into following through on more. Another strategy helpful for focus and paced time management is the Pomodoro Technique, Nordmeyer said. It involves using a timer for three 25-minute intervals of focused work, with a five-minute break between each. After the fourth interval, you can take a 30-minute break before repeating the process, which you can tailor to your needs. These methods also help combat the all-or-nothing thinking that can make a task seem too daunting, leading to feelings of paralysis, experts said. Stop making your to-do lists so long. A gigantic list can feel overwhelming and keep you from starting. Write down a few important tasks and if you do all of them, then you can add more. Nordmeyer recommends using the 'Eisenhower Matrix' for prioritizing tasks according to urgency and importance. The tool divides tasks into four categorical boxes: what you'll do first, schedule for later, delegate or delete. Consider how you could be harming yourself. Though you shouldn't be too self-critical, thinking of the chaos, distress or relational discord that could result from procrastination is sometimes necessary. Consider the fact that just as you don't want to let others down, you also deserve to experience things such as ease, cleanliness, health and a sense of accomplishment. Try mindfulness techniques. Quietly sitting with your emotions, doing breathing exercises or meditating can help you regulate any distress surrounding a task, Sirois said. Make sure your foundation is right. Getting enough good-quality food, sleep, exercise and relaxation can also support the energy levels needed for motivation, attention, discipline and emotion regulation, according to experts. Use social support. Loved ones can be helpful for holding you accountable in various ways, including checking in to see whether you have made that doctor appointment you said you would or working on their own project next to you as you're fulfilling an obligation. What can also be helpful is playing YouTube videos featuring a content creator who studies, cleans or performs another task, inviting the viewer to do the same and offering virtual accountability, Finch said. 'If I could have figured this out by myself, if another listicle or procrastination book was going to be the thing that did it for me, I would have already crawled out of that hole,' Finch said. The road to recovery isn't linear, and the destination needn't be perfection, sources said. The supports and strategies you need may also change over time as life events, demands or energy levels shift. But both Finch and Delaney are now able to meet deadlines and completing tasks much more often than not. And their efforts have done wonders for their productivity and quality of life. 'When I actually do see things through or check boxes, it's a boost to my self-esteem,' Delaney said. Finch is no longer drained by the constant stress, shame and urgency of procrastination, and has gained 'irrevocable confidence,' he said. 'It was like someone changed gravity.' If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, help is available. Dial or text 988 or visit for free and confidential support.
