Procrastinate on Purpose summary

Conventional wisdom tells us that less is more. Nonetheless, when trying to become more successful, we tend to think about what we can add to our lives to boost our achievements. We adopt a clever new strategy, for example, or add that productivity-boosting step to our morning routine. But the truth is that adding to your to-do list won’t multiply your time or your success. In fact, the path to productivity lies in eliminating activities from your life. 

Of course, this might be easier said than done. Why? Because human nature craves the satisfaction of achievement. Thus, we often engage in trivial activities simply to reassure ourselves that we’ve accomplished something. This explains the common yet pointless practice of completing a random activity and then adding it to our to-do list simply so we can mark it as done!

Do you think like a wealthy person or like an average person? You can find out by conducting the following simple thought experiment. When deciding whether to buy a $5 coffee, what do you think about? The average person only considers whether they have $5 in their pocket to spend. Although this approach might initially seem sensible, the wealthy person thinks bigger. Instead, they consider that if they spend this $5 now, that’s money they can’t invest in something else. In other words, having a wealthy mindset means having an investment mindset.

Crucially, multipliers make time for themselves the same way that wealthy people make money – with an investment mindset. Let’s take a look at how investment begets both time and money. 

Some things in life just need to get done. If you’ve got a task that can’t be eliminated or automated, then it’s important enough to receive human attention. But if you’re a time-poor worker, don’t panic – you might just be able to delegate it instead. Consider everything you do daily, from housework to spreadsheet updates. Now ask yourself: Could someone else do this for me? For most tasks, the answer is probably yes. 

So, why don’t more of us save time by delegating?

Visit a lake at sunset, and you may find a fisherman there with a line of freshly caught fish. But take a look during the mid-morning, and you won’t see him catching any fish, no matter how long he stands there. Why? Because fish bite at dusk and dawn, not at 11:00 a.m. This shows that success is not just about taking action or how long you spend doing something. In life, just as in fishing, it’s also about waiting for the right moment.

With this in mind, give yourself permission to procrastinate. 

During the harvest season, a farmer works a staggering 18 hours a day. Getting ill, tired or taking a career break isn’t an option. She has only a short window in which to pick her crops and secure her livelihood for the rest of the year. The rest of us can learn something from the harvesting farmer. Sometimes, your only option is to focus all your energy on the task at hand.

So far, we’ve learned how to multiply your time by eliminating, automating, delegating and procrastinating. But if you can’t do any of those things, then the task must become your priority. When it comes to priorities, the best way to deal with them is to give them your full attention. 

How much time are you and your colleagues wasting in the workplace? It might be a lot more than you think. A survey of 10,000 people conducted by the author’s consultancy found that the average respondent wastes 2.09 hours on irrelevant activities a day! These shocking statistics prove that time management shouldn’t just be a personal aspiration, but a commercial imperative.

Let’s calculate how much all that wasted time costs businesses across the United States. The average American, for example, makes $39,795 annually, which equates to around a $19 hourly wage. So those 2.09 hours add up to a $10,396 cost for employers every year. And that’s just for one employee!