The Procrastination Cure Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus The Procrastination Cure

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Zusammenfassung von The Procrastination Cure

Name: The Procrastination Cure
Rating: 4.5 (567 reviews)
Author: Jeffery Combs

Jeffery Combs

7 Steps to Stop Putting Life Off

4.5 (567 Bewertungen)

16 Min.

Themen

Achtsames Arbeiten Routinen & Gewohnheiten Emotionale Intelligenz Persönlichkeit

Inhaltsübersicht

The Procrastination Cure
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Kernaussage 1 von 6

What’s in it for me? Overcome the barriers between you and your dreams

What’s the trick to beating procrastination? Is it putting your phone in your closet? Blocking distracting apps and websites? How about a padlock on your fridge to keep you from snacking?

While tips and tricks may help, if you’re struggling with frequent procrastination, you may have deeper things you can work on.

Procrastination isn’t who you are. It’s a pattern of behavior that arises out of specific psychological dynamics – dynamics that may run deep, but that you can still change.

Procrastinators tend to fall into types and, while we won’t be able to cover every single case in this blink, we’ll focus on three of the most common types of procrastinators – and the specific steps and strategies that benefit each.

Alright, no time to delay! Let’s get going.

Procrastination and Its Toll

What’s the longest you’ve ever spent procrastinating something? A few days? Weeks? The author once coached a client who had put off filing her taxes… for fifteen years!

While this may be extreme, it’s not without precedent. Every year, people pay millions in excess taxes for procrastination-related reasons; getting penalized for filing late or making expensive mistakes while in a time crunch. Experts estimate that 40 percent of Americans have suffered needless financial setbacks due to procrastination.

But it’s about much more than your bank account.

Consider our 15-year tax-avoider. What was going on there? It all stemmed from fear. Her initial procrastination started with some anxiety or discomfort, which escalated into dread as the potential consequences loomed larger and larger. A vicious spiral of fear, winding slowly upwards until, by the time she sought the author’s help, she was so afraid she couldn’t sleep at night!

This is perhaps the greatest toll procrastination takes. The loss of happiness and well-being.

So, why do people do it? What is procrastination, anyway?

It’s not the same as delaying a task. After all, we sometimes delay a task for perfectly good reasons: you can’t do everything at once. Procrastination is a particular kind of delay – it’s putting something off even after you know it’s time to start.

Procrastination is related to indecisiveness, but it’s not exactly the same. Indecision is struggling to make up your mind, while procrastination is when you’ve made up your mind, but still somehow fail to take action.

Psychologists Albert Ellis and William Knaus have their own definition – procrastination is when you delay performing a task up to the point where you start to experience discomfort or bad feelings.

This rings true. And yet – paradoxically – we procrastinate out of a vain effort to avoid discomfort. Something feels stressful, painful, or uncomfortable; and so we come up with a reason to do something – anything – else until, eventually, we start to feel discomfort about the avoidance.

As we’ll see, curing procrastination is less about managing your time and more about managing your emotions. A big step is getting clear about which emotions are driving us.

We each have unique life histories and experiences that inform our behaviors. But – lucky for us – the author has coached thousands of people struggling with procrastination, and there are some patterns that come up again and again.

Good Enough to Start – And to Finish

Picture this: you’ve dreamt for years of writing a screenplay. In your mind, it’s going to be a masterpiece. You read and research. You obsess over each scene, plot point, and character arc. You brainstorm, you draft, you revise. But you never quite get around to finishing. Years go by and, instead of making your mark on the industry as you hoped, your masterpiece is still stuck in “draft.”

This is the plight of the “neurotic perfectionist.”

Preparing to Prepare

Let’s look at John – another coaching client. John was a successful insurance salesman who decided to switch careers. So, he immersed himself in learning; he listened to audio programs, attended webinars, seminars, rallies, and conventions. He built a strong network of contacts and top coaches. For nearly three years, John prepared for his career switch, lining up everything just so.

Unfortunately, John was doing all of this preparation on borrowed money – and going deeper and deeper into debt in the process. John wasn’t lazy. He was doing stuff. But he was still procrastinating; procrastinating starting his new career in earnest by, let’s say, actually reaching out to clients.

Rebel Without a Cause

Okay, here comes another movie metaphor. Picture the iconic James Dean in the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause. Dean embodied a spirit of youthful defiance that resonated with a generation. He’s a powerful, passionate character, admittedly. But not a very happy one.

There's a unique breed of procrastinator the author calls “rebellious procrastinators.” For these people, their identity becomes entwined with a sense of resentment and defiance.

Reconnecting and Recreating

Alright, so when it comes to procrastination, we’ve talked about the big picture – you’ve got to understand and let go of the specific emotional dynamics that fuel your self-destructive behavior. But is there something else you can do, day-to-day, to help ease this transition? Here are two strategies. Be warned, though: they’re probably not what you’re expecting.

The first: focus on addressing your anxiety and discomfort as they manifest within your body. While your fears may, in some sense, be “all in your head,” sooner or later they start creeping outwards – into a stiff neck, a tense jaw, a tight lower back. Your mind and body are inseparable. So, get a massage, see a chiropractor; start a yoga or tai chi practice; try martial arts. The choice is yours, but the point is to soothe and loosen your tense muscles and bring some relaxation and balance to the body. You’d be surprised how caring for your physical-self can feed into your work-self.

Final Summary

Everybody knows: procrastination is a scourge. Millions of creative and intelligent people self-sabotage by chronically delaying and deferring their goals.

Procrastination is a complex behavior, but it has roots in basic emotions like shame, fear, and anger. Overcoming it requires developing the self-awareness to spot which emotions are driving you — and learning to let them go. Along the way, you can help by releasing emotions stored in the body and connecting with those around you.

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Worum geht es in The Procrastination Cure?

The Procrastination Cure is a practical and motivational guide to overcoming procrastination. It offers strategies and personal insights to diagnose and address the root causes of this behavior, enabling readers to balance productivity and relaxation without guilt.

Wer The Procrastination Cure lesen sollte

Anyone who struggles with procrastination
People suffering from perfectionism or resistance
Anyone willing to introspect and develop self-awareness

Über den Autor

Jeffery Combs is a speaker and trainer in the network marketing and direct sales sectors. As a personal and professional coach, he has imparted his knowledge to thousands of entrepreneurs and others. He is the author of More Heart Than Talent and The Breakthrough Factor. He is a recovering procrastinator.

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