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For questions 1-8, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap.
Procrastination has long been regarded as a failing of character, a sign that the person concerned simply lacks the discipline to knuckle 1. and get things done. Recent research, however, paints a rather more sympathetic picture. According to psychologists who study the habit, putting things off has less to do with laziness 2. with the management of emotion. Faced 3. a task that makes us anxious or bored, we seek short-term relief by turning to something more pleasant, 4. though we know full well that the problem will only grow. 5. this account prove correct, then the familiar remedies, from stricter timetables to elaborate to-do lists, are aimed at the wrong target. What procrastinators need is not more pressure but help in tolerating the discomfort that a task provokes. 6. of the more effective techniques is surprisingly simple: committing to work on the dreaded task for just five minutes. 7. and again, the anxiety fades once work is under way, and the five minutes stretch into an hour. It is, it seems, the prospect of the task rather than the task 8. that we find so hard to bear.