Stress and Anxiety caused by PhD has deeper and more underlying causes that the scholars must be aware of and not ignore. If simple efforts to organise and prioritize thing does not simplify your life and makes you feel still out of control then you need to go more in deep and identify and find out the fears you have.
Most of the PhD scholars have the fear of failure. Know that fear is one of the greatest cause of anxiety and stress and can be profoundly limiting. Some of the fears are not direct and explicitly visible but they have a deeper placing in your mind. Some of the fears and unknown and unfounded. You must be aware of your hidden and unfounded feelings
If you are one of those persons who finds it very difficult to detach from things and situations then you must learn and practice to let go in life. From small to big things, whatever may happen, you must let go. Failing in PhD is surely tough but remember it isn’t the worst thing that could happen to you. There are things all the more bad that could happen. Keeping that in mind, learn to let go and once you have learnt it, you must practice it. This can only happen when you completely trust your ability to cope up with whatever happens. If you are feeling saturated with the pressure of your PhD and want to quit it all together, figure out if you could give it one more shot at least with meticulous understanding and planning of things that went wrong previously. Most of the time, when you look into things meticulously, they do start to work out.
Most importantly, anxiety frustration and stress are inevitable in your PhD but do not take them as a normal part of your degree. You must learn to address your fears and acknowledge the stress so that once you accept the problem then only are you able to cope up with it. Accepting is the first thing to do so that you can achieve what you are truly and most importantly capable of doing and then take the appropriate action that must be taken.
You aren’t the only one who is facing this. Find respite in the fact that all the scholars go through high and uncontrollable bouts of fear and anxiety some or the other times. Only the ones who know how to conquer it, sail through. Become one of those!