The Procrastination Equation is this season’s must-read self-help book. In addition to offering useful strategies to fight a common problem, it’s a fascinating read.” — Montreal Gazette
“An upbeat, motivational guide to procrastination. . . . Everything you ever wanted to know about procrastination but never got around to reading.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Why you ‘put off till tomorrow what you can do today’ forms the crux of Steel’s book, in which he not only answers that question but details specific techniques to reign in the impulse. . . . Offers good advice.” — Library Journal
“Procrastinating just makes unpleasant tasks worse, so why is it so hard for us to resist dithering and delay? The Procrastination Equation is crammed with surprising insights about procrastination and human nature — as well as concrete, helpful solutions for fighting procrastination.” — Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project
“Procrastination is the saffron spice of human behavior, where even small amounts of this tendency can shatter the best of intentions. In this illuminating book Piers Steel shows us the secrets of procrastination, how it affects us and how we will, one day, be able to prevail.” — Dan Ariely, author of The Upside of Irrationality and Predictably Irrational
“The Procrastination Equation will teach you how to bust the excuses that are preventing you from doing your best work and living your best life. . . . So don’t put it off any longer. Read this book. Today.” — Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind
“I put off writing this blurb ‘til the last minute. I thought it was because I was too busy but after reading The Procrastination Equation, I know the real reasons. Piers Steel will help you tackle the goals . . . that always seemed . . . out of reach.” — Richard Florida, author of The Great Reset
“A useful, eye-opening book.” — Booklist
The Procrastination Equation will teach you how to bust the excuses that are preventing you from doing your best work and living your best life. . . . So don’t put it off any longer. Read this book. Today.
Procrastination is the saffron spice of human behavior, where even small amounts of this tendency can shatter the best of intentions. In this illuminating book Piers Steel shows us the secrets of procrastination, how it affects us and how we will, one day, be able to prevail.
The Procrastination Equation is this season’s must-read self-help book. In addition to offering useful strategies to fight a common problem, it’s a fascinating read.
Procrastinating just makes unpleasant tasks worse, so why is it so hard for us to resist dithering and delay? The Procrastination Equation is crammed with surprising insights about procrastination and human nature — as well as concrete, helpful solutions for fighting procrastination.
A useful, eye-opening book.
I put off writing this blurb ‘til the last minute. I thought it was because I was too busy but after reading The Procrastination Equation, I know the real reasons. Piers Steel will help you tackle the goals . . . that always seemed . . . out of reach.
A useful, eye-opening book.
The Procrastination Equation is this season’s must-read self-help book. In addition to offering useful strategies to fight a common problem, it’s a fascinating read.
In his absorbing first book Steel looks closely at the oft-misunderstood habit of procrastination. Usually seen as laziness, procrastination stems from the mismatch between human evolution and modern society. Steel, a reformed procrastinator who calls procrastination his "life's work," studied the subject by conducting original research and analyzing hundreds of published cross-discipline studies. His carefully crafted volume describes what he calls the "intention-action gap" and explains why so many people are driven to delay. Early chapters, from "Portrait of a Procrastinator" to "The Economic Cost of Procrastination" take the reader on a vivid tour of the consequences of procrastination and analyze why humans are wired to wait. Though Steel is perhaps too abstruse in describing the results of some findings, most of his writing is clear, never more so than when associated with the biology underlying procrastination. "Action points" offer practical advice for readers who have identified their procrastination tendencies. Though some of the author's tools are self-help book staples, Steel adapts them to his subject. His engaging guide will appeal to a wide audience of past, present, and future procrastinators and researchers trying to get a handle on the science of putting things off. (Jan.)
Why you "put off till tomorrow what you can do today" forms the crux of Steel's (human resources & organizational dynamics, Univ. of Calgary, Canada) book, in which he not only answers that question but details specific techniques to reign in the impulse. While 95 percent of the population tends to procrastinate sometimes, chronic offenders tend to be more impulsive. This stated, Steel delves into the realm of motivation and shares techniques to reframe the goals of a task vs. the difficulties involved. For instance, he suggests that one focus on having energy rather than not being tired and starting early rather than not being late. While Steel offers good advice, getting to the essence involves reading chapters of text and examples. Easy to put off reading.
Pete Larkin’s smart-aleck vibe works well with this assertive guide, which debunks a good many myths about procrastination and pulls no punches regarding what you should do about it. Some smugness creeps into the performance here and there, but it’s not out of character with the confidence in this lucid writing. The author, a professor and consultant, shows how behavioral and neurological research points to two broad reasons people don’t finish important tasks: They avoid starting or continuing such tasks when they believe the work will not be enjoyable, vital, or likely to be completed successfully, and they drift away from the work because of distractibility, poor impulse control, and a poor sense of time. The second half of the book is devoted to clear advice and strategies. T.W. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
An upbeat, motivational guide to procrastination.
Steel (Haskayne School of Business, Univ. of Calgary), an industrial-organizational psychologist whose doctoral thesis examined procrastination, explains it all: what it is, why people do it, what the results of such behavior are and what do to about it. Defined here as irrational delay, procrastination is a measurable trait, and the author provides simple tests so that readers can determine their type of procrastination and how they compare with others. Steel introduces three characters, dubbed Eddie, Valerie and Tom, whose stories illustrate the motivational elements that make up the "procrastination equation": Expectancy x Value / Impulsiveness x Delay = Motivation. Simply put, the equation means that the motivation to perform a particular task declines when the expectancy or value of a task's reward declines or when there is an increase in impulsivity or in the delay of the task's reward. Graphs and charts demonstrate how these elements operate and what Steel's research on procrastination has revealed. Individual chapters focus on each of these equation's elements and give pointers on how to deal with them. Following the self-help sections, Eddie, Valerie and Tom return in stories that illustrate how they changed their behavior and their lives by applying the recommended tactics. Procrastination, writes the author, is widespread because it is wired into the human brain, occurring when the impulsive limbic system overrules the more rational prefrontal cortex, and he offers a capsule history of procrastination from the introduction of agriculture to the industrial revolution. Today, he writes, computers and television are the top two distractions that fuel procrastination, but, in his view, easily built and readily implemented technological devices could provide a solution to our weak wills in these areas of temptation.
Everything you ever wanted to know about procrastination but never got around to reading.
