Review: Procrastination: Why You Do It, What To Do About It

[wshaffer]

Procrastination: Why You Do It, What To Do About It by Jane B. Burka

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Probably one of the most comprehensive overviews of the causes of procrastination that I've read. I think this book does a really good job of demonstrating that procrastination is a complex thing, with many possible causes behind it. I particularly liked the discussion of how some procrastinators have a different relationship with time than non-procrastinators - I've personally found that a lot of my procrastination comes not so much from a reluctance to do a task but from things like vastly underestimating the amount of time it will take, assuming there will be time "later" to do it, or just getting completely caught up in something else and losing track of time.

The second half of the book, the "what to do about it" part, goes over slightly more familiar territory, with recommendations to do things like break tasks into smaller pieces, give yourself rewards, and enlist social support.

I won't say that the book is life changing, but having a better understanding of the reasons why I procrastinate has helped me tweak my anti-procrastination strategies to be a bit more effective. Which is enough for me - my procrastination is not bad enough to be crippling, although it does annoy me sometimes.

Finally, I just want to say that I've seen several reviews dissing the authors for admitting to their own struggles with procrastination. I don't get it - why would you read a book on overcoming procrastination written by people who had never struggled with procrastination? (Come to think of it, although I've used words like "non-procrastinators" and "people who have never struggled with procrastination", I'm not sure that such people exist. If you can honestly say that you've never procrastinated on anything, I would be fascinated to hear your experiences.)



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Comments

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

That is fascinating to me, and I can't help but mentally link it to the way you outline stories. In both cases, that mode of thought is very alien to me.

I've been using Habitica for my to-do list, and it has three important keywords for organizational purposes. "Today" is for the stuff that I genuinely mean to do today; as you can imagine, that one gets reassigned frequently. "Priority" is for stuff I need to do soon; when I'm picking what to label Today, or I've finished all of those tasks and want/have the time to get something else done, I consult the Priority list before eyeing the general pile of "stuff to do when I have some time for it." And then In Progress is for stuff that is generally not a one-shot task, but will require more continual effort over a long period of time. When I was hugely slammed with stuff earlier this year, my general goal was to check off at least five items each day (usually, but not always, from the Today or Priority lists), and to finish one sub-item from something In Progress. It helped me break down the giant list of things-to-do into more manageable bites, without -- and for me, this is the key difference -- knowing what I was going to be doing next week or the week after that or the month after that.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, and there are things like--I don't have "write new story while visiting in-laws" on the list, because it'll happen or it won't. But if it does happen, "revise [new title]" will get put on the list.

There are some things on my to-do list that are marked with the day of the week, some even with the time of day--"Call AE--WED 8-9 a," for example, and "vote--WED." And then there are things marked with no particular day within the particular week. There's a set of things I want to remember eventually, but I try not to put too many things on that--stories I might at some point write should be compelling enough that I remember to go looking for my notes on them.