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Summary of The Procrastination Equation 

4.3 . 225 reviews

Short summary

Almost everyone struggles with procrastination in different areas and for various reasons. This summary will outline what you can do to increase productivity by managing procrastination. The Procrastination Equation provides well-researched and tested solutions to the epidemic of procrastination. You’ll learn why you often put off things you ought to do and how procrastination affects your life, positively and negatively. With many distractions in our digital world, we need to master getting stuff done, tame the cultural, psychological, and physiological factors that make us procrastinate, and live a life that we can be proud of. Piers Steel is a researcher of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources and an authority on the science of motivation and productivity. “Procrastinators who understand the processes behind their inaction can master them and become less stressed about their deadlines and more able to meet them.” ~ Piers Steel, Ph.D.

Table of content

  • Summary of The Procrastination Equation
  • About the author
  • What is The Procrastination Equation about?
  • Who should read The Procrastination Equation
  • Topics in The Procrastination Equation
first key point

Understanding why you procrastinate helps you to manage it properly

Listen the first key point
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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.
Research reveals that impulsiveness is at the heart of procrastination.
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.
For those of us who are less impulsive, anxiety is often an internal cue that gets us to start a project early, but for those who are more impulsive it is a different story: anxiety over a deadline will lead straight to procrastination. ~ Piers Steel, Ph.D.
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.
second key point

The Procrastination equation is expectancy times value divided by impulsiveness times delay

The Procrastination equation comprises four components:
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third key point

Creating a success spiral enables us to increase our expectancy

fourth key point

You can increase the expected value of a task by practicing mental contrasting

fifth key point

You gain an extra month each year by eliminating distractions from your life

sixth key point

Not having enough sleep can enhance procrastination because you’re too tired to work

seventh key point

Conclusion

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What is The Procrastination Equation about?

Who should read The Procrastination Equation

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Do you find yourself staring at your computer for long minutes, unaware of time slipping by? Do you enter a room and suddenly cannot remember why you stepped in the first place? Is it a herculean task for you to sit through ten pages of a book without reaching for your phone? If yes, your focus needs some work and fast.

Actually, yours is not a unique situation. Many adults like you have issues concentrating on a given task. However, in this fast-paced world of ours, you can’t afford to be not focused at all times. Thankfully, this article comes to your rescue! With the tips and tricks from Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey, you will get in the top percent of folks who have mastered the art of concentration.

Do you find yourself staring at your computer for long minutes, unaware of time slipping by? Do you enter a room and suddenly cannot remember why you stepped in the first place? Is it a herculean task for you to sit through ten pages of a book without reaching for your phone? If yes, your focus needs some work and fast.

Actually, yours is not a unique situation. Many adults like you have issues concentrating on a given task. However, in this fast-paced world of ours, you can’t afford to be not focused at all times. Thankfully, this article comes to your rescue! With the tips and tricks from Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey, you will get in the top percent of folks who have mastered the art of concentration.