summary ofThe Procrastination EquationBook by Piers Steel, PhD

first KEY POINT

Understanding why you procrastinate helps you to manage it properly

We’ve all dealt with procrastination in our lives. However, most of us think of procrastination as a form of bad judgment without digging to understand why we do it in the first place. In the following chapters, you will discover why procrastination ruins your life and how to get yourself out of that pit.Procrastination is often confused with laziness, but a procrastinator is different. While a lazy person never gets things done, a procrastinator eventually executes the task, but with much struggle.Positive qualities like prudence, patience, and prioritizing share something in common with procrastination — delay. Yet, they are different from procrastination. Procrastination is much more than delaying things to a later time; it is irrationally putting off tasks even when you know doing so could harm you.When we suffer the consequences of procrastination, we promise ourselves it will never happen again. The problem with such a promise is that it fails to see procrastination as a habit. Thus, we fall into self-deception because we cannot end procrastination by simply wishing the behavior away or, worse, by justifying it.

Our desire to live in the now makes us put off things we should be doing. This desire cuts across all fields of human endeavor and is slightly more prominent in men than women.

When a person is impulsive, they avoid any task that induces anxiety. Even if they manage to begin, they readily get distracted by something else.Should you be doing something, but somehow you can’t find the motivation to do it? This summary will help you understand and know what to do about procrastination. You will discover the procrastination equation and apply it accordingly.Did you know? Procrastination first appeared in the English Language in the 16th century.