One in five find the daily ‘to-do list' so overwhelming that it constantly worries them, while 14% lose sleep over them, a number almost the same as the population of the North West of England, according to the Payments Council.
The Life's Long List report, A study of 2,085 UK adults, found it is younger people who are suffering the most.
30% of 18-24 year olds - around 1.8m people, are so concerned by their list that they feel ill and 21% of young people admit that they lie awake thinking about their list.
Financial planning tasks are not so pressing though. A third (35%) keep intending to save for a rainy day and 25% plan to pay off their credit card bill. Moving bank accounts for a better deal features on 16% of our ‘to-do lists'.
Health concerns are also high on our lists. Just under two thirds of us (59%) want to exercise more regularly, but of more concern is the fact that over one in five (22%) of us are failing to book and attend doctor's appointments and over a quarter (27%) keep putting off eye tests.
Social psychologist and life coach Dr Gary Wood, who co-author of the report, explained: "Today's everyday tasks have a tendency to mount up and appear overbearing if we let them. Stress then triggers our 'fight or flight response'.
"This distorts our perception of time and limits our sense of the options available to us. We think 'survive' rather than 'thrive'. Instead we need to give ourselves space to sit back and appraise our lists - identifying activities that can be easily tackled and finding a logical way to do so."
