Ask yourself why you must be so productive and ambitious in the first place. Your self worth is clearly tied into that list of accomplishments; why is that so?

Ask yourself why you must be so productive and ambitious in the first place. Your self worth is clearly tied into that list of accomplishments; why is that so? Maybe try writing down a list of reasons why you believe accomplishment is the greatest measure of your own worth, and see if they make logical sense to you when you think deeply about them. At the same time, ask yourself why you procrastinate. Come up with a list of reasons for that as well. Probably a strong reason is that you're afraid of failure (since you need successful accomplishments so badly to feel self worth). Only when the anxiety of not finishing anything outweighs the anxiety of failing something do you not procrastinate. This is what happens when your primary motivator is anxiety. Thirdly, ask yourself why in particular minimizing (age/accomplishments) is so important to you. If you live an average lifespan, you still have 2/3 of your life left to accomplish what you want. If you started from scratch now, you could still make major contributions to most fields in under 10 years time. If you're worried about declining brain health with age, do things which minimize the decline (avoiding excessive anxiety is probably a good place to start). Consider that most people regret not spending enough time with friends and family, not fully appreciating life, and not communicating how they really feel, when they die. They don't regret not working more.