The Now Habit Book Summary - The Now Habit Book explained in key points

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The Now Habit summary

Name: The Now Habit
Rating: 4.5 (301 reviews)
Author: Neil Fiore

Neil Fiore

A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play

4.5 (301 ratings)

20 mins

Topics

Routines & Habits Effectiveness

Table of Contents

The Now Habit
Summary of 9 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 9

What’s in it for me? You’ve been taught to procrastinate, now you can unlearn it.

Procrastination means spending your entire work day surfing Facebook and news sites instead of writing your report that’s already overdue; it means cleaning your apartment for the third time this week instead of proofreading your thesis; it means calling all your friends just to say “hello,” instead of finally filing your taxes.

Outside observers might find your procrastination amusing. But for chronic procrastinators, it’s no laughing matter.

They feel their lives are out of their control. Every time they sit down at their desk and resolutely declare, “this time, I’ll really write that report,” they end up wasting yet another day on Facebook.

When they fail to meet their goals, they have feelings of guilt and shame; and since they never get anything done on time, they suffer from chronic stress and aren’t ever really able to relax.

Neil Fiore is convinced that procrastination isn’t innate, that is, we aren’t born lazy.

All we have to do is look to children to see that this is true – they never procrastinate!

In fact, we learn and adopt this unhealthy habit; it’s taught in our schools, by our parents, and at the workplace.

Thankfully, since procrastination is something that’s learned, it’s also something we can unlearn. All we need is a shift of mind-set and a few simple tools.

These blinks will show you:

how to best understand procrastination,
how to get two horses to work together as a team,
why setting lofty goals can actually wreck your motivation,
how the underlying mind-set that causes procrastination can be changed and
which simple tools you can use to overcome it.

Let's start by looking at the source of procrastination. Why do we do it?

Procrastination is a strategy to avoid fear of failure.

Procrastination is a problem most of us are familiar with. In spite of its prevalence, procrastination is typically tied to very specific situations.

Usually, we procrastinate on work, that is, when there is a certain task we’re required to perform like writing a report, organizing a seminar or making a presentation in front of a team.

These tasks are all significant and not part of your routine. You don’t procrastinate going to the bathroom or answering a colleague who wants to take you to lunch, but you might put off starting an important presentation.

In fact, the types of tasks we procrastinate on usually have three important characteristics:

First, when you want to do a good job on something so you can live up to others’ and your own expectations.

Second, you find the work dull. It’s no fun and getting started, for example, writing the first page or filling up PowerPoint slides takes motivation.

Finally, it’s unclear what qualifies as a “good job”: you simply don’t know how to live up to others’ expectations and deliver a great presentation or write an outstanding report. What is “good?” What is “good enough?” And what if you pour your heart and soul into a project that completely fails?

When faced with these kinds of tasks, the inevitable consequence is a choice between two options:

If you start working on the task, you spend your time on something boring, plus you risk failing and disappointing both yourself and others as well.

If you don’t start working, you can avoid this boredom, uncertainty and the fear of failure.

So what do you choose? Most likely, you’ll choose the second strategy and delay the unpleasantness associated with your task. And, in a certain sense, it works: you learn that procrastination helps you avoid boredom and fear of failure – at least temporarily.

We’re taught to dislike work and fear failure.

Both teachers and parents alike believe they know why their children procrastinate: obviously, it’s because of their innate laziness!

And a child needs discipline, reward and punishment to overcome this laziness. Children that aren’t working hard enough simply need to be pushed harder! Right?

Our self-esteem is linked to work, and procrastination helps protect it.

Each and every human being wants to be valued and held in high regard by others. If we can avoid it, we usually don’t surround ourselves with people who constantly make fun of us or put us down.

In fact, we employ many strategies to combat any threats to this desire to protect our own self-esteem .

Adopt the anti-procrastination mantra: “You only learn when you fail.”

One of the key ingredients of procrastination is perfectionism: no matter what we do, we always tell ourselves that the results must be the absolute best they can be. Mistakes are to be avoided at all costs, and failure is both unacceptable and a threat to our self-worth.

In the face of this overwhelming pressure to perform well, we lock up, meaning we do nothing, instead of starting our work and facing this challenge; we procrastinate by browsing the internet, sorting our stamp collection or leaving to run some “urgent” errand.

To become a producer, change your self-talk from “I must” or “I should” to “When can I start?”

The typical procrastinator experiences a specific inner monologue, which is dominated by an inner conflict. Usually, this self-talk uses phrases such as “I must,” “I have to” or “I should,” which all implicitly mean “I don’t want to.”

This permanent conflict is like two horses pulling in opposite directions: one horse pulls you towards the task that “should” or “has to” be done; the other away from it because you “don’t want to.”

To be productive, integrate relaxation and play in your everyday life.

Procrastination is a vicious cycle: once you start delaying your work, the guilty feeling of having to catch up on everything later accumulates into a larger and larger pile of guilt.

Thus procrastination leads to a life where you constantly feel like you have more work to do than you will ever manage to get done.

If you want to make a task less threatening, break it down into small, manageable units.

Usually the hardest part about work is getting started.

Chronic procrastinators understand this: once they get started, they might actually have to write part of that report, so instead they spend hours opening the document, closing it, checking their Facebook page or cleaning the kitchen just to open the document again half an hour later…and then they repeat the cycle.

For stress-free productivity, try “unscheduling.”

One simple technique to make your work week both more pleasant and more productive is to employ the Unschedule technique for time management.

The primary objective of this technique is to get as many short (around 30-minute) periods of uninterrupted, focused work into your day, instead of spending ten hours “working,” half-focused and riddled with procrastination and distractions.

To fight off distractions, always have a piece of paper or a notebook within reach.

There seems to be an infinite number of ways of getting distracted on the job:

Maybe you have a sudden stroke of genius and feel the intense urge to research or share it with a colleague. Or maybe you remember an urgent task and you’re afraid you’ll forget if you don’t take care of it right away. Or maybe your favorite co-worker swings by to say “hello” or reminds you of a report you promised to send her by the end of the week.

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What is The Now Habit about?

The Now Habit investigates a problem many people can relate to today: procrastination. Why do people put off important tasks until the last possible second? And how can they be helped? The Now Habit explains where this phenomenon comes from, and which mindset and tools can help us overcome it.

Who should read The Now Habit?

Anyone suffering from procrastination
Anyone who wants to help a chronic procrastinator
Anyone interested in self-management and personal development

About the Author

Neil Fiore is an American psychologist and bestselling author of a number of books, including The Road Back to Health, with a primary focus on productivity and hypnosis. As a trainer and coach, he has helped thousands of clients and consulted many renowned companies.

Categories with The Now Habit

Psychology Productivity Personal Development

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