The thing is, you shouldn’t let that stop you from reading a copy of this book. Even though some of my habits haven’t changed, the book has helped me cope with my procrastinating ways and helped me change several keys areas of my life that lead to procrastination.

I downloaded the book from the R.E.A.D.S. database, and if you have a library card and an internet connection, you might want to give it a shot. If not, then consider buying the book from Amazon. (Don’t procrastinate. Amazon has this book at a bargain price of $2.99 as of today.)

I recommended The Procrastinator’s Handbook because…

The author of The Procrastinator’s Handbook: Mastering the Art of Doing it Now, Rita Emmett, sums up the beauty of this book in her introduction.

People who benefit from time management are like a group that has decided to go on a bicycle journey. They know where they want to go; their bikes are all ready, and time management principles are like the map or directions they need to set off on their adventure.

Then along comes the group of procrastinators meandering down the road. They haven’t decided yet where they want to go, and they’ve forgotten to bring their bikes, which don’t work anyway because they haven’t gotten around to fixing the flat tire. Maps and directions (time management principles) are of little use to this group. They need something different, so for them I developed my Conquer Procrastination seminars and wrote this book.

When people take my seminars, often the first questions they ask are: “Can a person really stop procrastinating?” “How can people expect to change their basic personalities or character traits?”

Procrastination is not an inherent part of your personality or character; it is simply a habit, an attitude. Can people change habits? Of course they can! Millions of people have stopped smoking, even though that habit is extremely hard to break. Can people change attitudes? Sure. Do you know anyone who used to think owning a VCR or sending E-mail was unnecessary, yet now — several years later — can’t imagine living without either?

I speak about procrastination from personal experience because I used to put off everything.

I most enjoyed her sections on identifying what types of procrastinator I am in what situations and then applying her suggestions for changing the patterns that keep me procrastinating.

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Recommended: The Procrastinator’s Handbook

I’ve yet to find a better quote that addresses procrastination. All procrastination isn’t bad, and the reason I know this is because everyone procrastinates. We procrastinate on any number of tasks on any given day. Not everything can be started, worked on, or finished in any one hour, day, or moment.

We make choices.

Our choices define what type of procrastinators we are.

Mr. Graham believes that there are three types of procrastinators—those who do nothing, those who do something less important, and those who do something more important.

When studying my own habits, I find that much of my procrastinating ways fit into this mold. However, at different times, I’m a different type of procrastinator.

For instance, Friday I was a procrastinator who did something more important (depending on how I define more important—money won out that day). Saturday, I was a procrastinator who did something less important (turns out my digital music collection really needed to be organized). I can’t remember being a “do nothing” procrastinator on any particular day, but I do know that I’ve certainly been that kind of procrastinator on more than one occasion.

By defining my goals in terms of my passions, I’ve been able to let go of the idea that I’m procrastinating on any number of things. I’ve been setting goals for myself and meeting them, and frankly, ignoring the stuff that doesn’t fit into those passions. My goal every day is to be the procrastinator who did something more important.

By setting this goal for myself, I make sure I’m procrastinating well. Choosing to work on the more important tasks each day means I can look back at the day and feel good about what I’ve done—not look back and feel guilty about what I didn’t do.

You can choose to do this too. If you have to procrastinate on something, choose to work on something of more importance as a substitute. It doesn’t matter what the more important item is. If you can objectively state to an outsider that you worked on something more important than what you didn’t work on, you will eventually get the important things done.

What about you? What type of procrastinator do you see yourself as most of the time? Do you think you can make this method work for you? Let me know in the comments!

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Procrastinating well

Maybe this is an exaggeration, then again, maybe not. Either way you look at it, if you can learn to shut off all the notifications of email and the auto checking functions, you’ll be that much closer to not having an instant procrastination pal. Take heed, so you don’t end up at the end of the day wondering just where the heck your day went.

Shut off all the email interruptions that could pull you away from what you are doing and send you spiraling out of control.

Also, don’t forget that if you set up specific times of day to check email, there’s really no need to have the auto check feature turned on. In fact, if you often find yourself needing to write emails throughout the day, you’ll likely be better off turning off the auto checking feature. Having emails come in whenever you open you email client up to write a simple email is a big distraction. Most people can’t resist skimming or even outright reading their new emails if they’re there, so take that temptation away by doing away with auto check.

I have auto checking turned off for every account I have in Thunderbird and it has worked wonders for me. I no longer find myself answering three or four unrelated emails every time I open the program. Because I limit my email checking, it also helps me avoid the back-and-forth that can come from constant email checking. If you need to collaborate with someone that badly, get on your instant messaging program and get it over with.

If you have people getting on your back because you aren’t responding immediately to their emails, remind them that email is not a phone call. If they need you that badly, they should call.

If you use Gmail or other online based email, DON’T make it your homepage in your browser. It’s easiest to fight temptation if you don’t put temptation right in your face.

Procrastination by email is a serious problem in these days of constant connectivity. I love my broadband connection, but ever since my rural telephone cooperative started offering DSL, checking email has become the bane of my existence, its lure like that of a shiny silver dollar in a wishing well. You know you shouldn’t want it, but boy is it hard to resist.

Take control. Don’t let email lead you astray.

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Your Email Auto Check is Not Your Friend

What does action oriented mean?

It means to be oriented toward, or focused on, action.

Do it, do it now. Don’t batch tasks for greater efficiency, and don’t put off something because there’s a better time for it. Just do it now. Take action whenever and wherever you can. You might suffer inefficiencies, but aren’t inefficiencies better than not doing it at all?

The truth is that procrastination is most prevalent when we put something off, because then we just want to put it off longer, later, and sometimes forever. By becoming action oriented and training ourselves to do things without even thinking about them first, we stop procrastination before it has time to take over.

And to me, that’s what becoming action oriented means.

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Become Action Oriented to Defeat Procrastination

NPR has an interesting piece of audio available for listening.

Why do today what you can do the day after tomorrow? Procrastination expert Timothy Pychyl and self-professed “structured procrastinator” John Perry discuss the latest research on this type of behavior and how to prioritize what’s really important.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91432804

Check out this page and listen to the 36 minutes of audio discussion. There are some useful links that will take you to reading that will give you a more thorough introduction to structured procrastination. I particularly like this method because it allows me to work with my procrastination habits instead of trying to change or cure me. Sure, there are some tips that can make procrastinating less of a problem, but overall it’s a very good method.

Structured Procrastination – http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/index.php

Procrastination and Perfectionism – http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/light/perfectionism.php

Discusses how the “fantasy of perfection” feeds procrastination and talks about a way to limit those fantasies’ impact. Here are a few of my favorite lines from the essay.

“How does the fantasy of perfection feed procrastination? Well, it’s not so easy to do things perfectly. At least I assume that it is not. Perhaps some day I’ll do something perfectly, and then I’ll know for sure.”

“Procrastinating was a way of giving myself permission to do a less than perfect job on a task that didn’t require a perfect job.”

Structured Procrastination: When all else fails – http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/dont-delay/200804/structured-procrastination-when-all-else-fails

Mostly this one is just a succinct summary of the original Structured Procrastination essay (see above link), but if you prefer bullet points to essay, give it a read.

Tags: procrastination, articles, essays, reading, audio, listening

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Structured Procrastination Resources