The Procrastination Cure: 21 Proven Tactics For Conquering Your Inner Procrastinator, Mastering Your Time, And Boosting Your Productivity!

by Damon Zahariades

For the purpose of this book, we’ll define procrastination as the act of deferring action on something when taking earlier action would arguably have been a better decision.

The biggest challenge in working on a task you consider to be boring, difficult, or unappealing, is starting on it. But a strange things happens once you start: the anxiety and dread associated with it rapidly declines.

Taking action causes the discomfort and guilt associated with procrastination to evaporate.

It also erases the stress and worry of doing the task.

The problem is, the items we postpone never go away. They linger, demanding more and more attention as time passes

Fear plays a significant role in our tendency to procrastinate. It manifests in various ways, but one of the strongest is through fear of failure.

To overcome fear of failure, think about the worst possible outcome. It’s probably not as bad as you imagine.

For example, you might believe that your past successes were due to factors outside your control. Consequently, you feel undeserving of recognition and the opportunities your past successes have afforded you.

If your heart’s not into a task, try to change things in a way that stimulates your mind. Be creative. For example, come up with a way to perform the task so that it requires you to use multiple skills. Or involve other people in its completion.

Meanwhile, the cost of allowing fear and discomfort to rob us of our ability to make decisions is significant; it sabotages our productivity.

if you struggle with indecisiveness, get into the habit of taking action.

Sometimes, choosing short-term satisfaction means sabotaging future goals. For example, suppose you’d like to lose weight, and have thus decided to forgo unhealthy foods. Suddenly, you’re tempted to eat a delectable donut. Giving in to this temptation would deliver immediate rewards: appealing taste, sugar high, dopamine rush, etc. But doing so would also sabotage your long-term goal: weight loss.

“Multitasking moves the pleasure of procrastination inside the period of work.”