I have this habit with anime (well all TV tbh) and games, haha
The main thing holding me back is bad download speed and lack of time, it's hard for me to watch more than 4 new 1-cour anime a season without some getting put on the back burners for months (and most eventually getting dropped). And there are way way too many games I have in my backlog... T-T
I find it more productive for me to just pick up not piping hot and fresh anime that people recommend. Right now I'm only watching Kaiji and all of Evangelion (DVDs of course) because I heard people talk so much about them
It also keeps me from picking up a new anime then dropping it because I dislike it and it ends up being something I did not like.