Procrastinators Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from chronic procrastination.
The Lifelong Activist: How to Change the World Without Losing Your Way by Hillary Rettig
I just started reading this book yesterday and am really liking it. As the title indicates, the book is geared toward activists (progressive ones in particular), though much of what I've read so far could be applied by anyone. It is broken up into five parts: Managing your Mission, Managing your Time, Managing your Fears, Managing your Relationship with Self, Managing your Relationship with Others. It is the section on Fear (100 pages of this 400+ page book) that is all about procrastination. Rettig recommends initially a behavioral fix and then looks more deeply at the fears that cause procrastination and specifically what to do about them. I'm finding the book to be hope-inspiring. Rettig has coached over 1000 people, many of them with procrastination issues, and had great success. Her website is http://lifelongactivist.com.
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Thanks for this book recommendation!
Mollie, thanks for posting this! I've gotten several very practical suggestions out of this book that I use every day!
Jo
"The sooner you get behind, the longer you have to catch up." - Steven Wright
The Little Guide To Beating Procrastination
I downloaded the book last week and I've been reading it (on my reward/break times). It's excellent so far, in describing fear-based procrastination. I haven't gotten to the solutions part yet, so we'll see. I actually have 2 procrastination books at home that I never finished. Go figure.
Journey
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen Covey
Re: The Little Guide To Beating Procrastination
Late reply... ;)
But, glad you've been/are/were getting something out of this book.
I found the writing practice, on just stopping and free-writing on why I might be procrastinating quite helpful. It's weird though, because I keep resisting it. I tell myself that it'll just be another method of procrastination, but actually I don't spend as long on it as I would procrastinating normally.
Or, I just tell myself that it's ok, I don't need to do this exercise, because as soon as I've finished looking at these links etc (I'm not reeeally procrastinating, not badly), I'll get back to work!
And I don't.
Let me know how it goes for you. I haven't finished reading it of course. :rolleyes:
re: The Little Guide to Beating Procrastination: Journaling
Grail, I just started back reading this book - I got about halfway through and then stopped - I can't tell you how many half-read time management books I have hehe.
So I just now started doing the journaling. I find it very helpful. I'm finding some recurring themes!
Jo
"The sooner you get behind, the longer you have to catch up." - Steven Wright
re: the little guide to beating procrastination
Here's a quote from the book that describes me PERFECTLY!
“Stealth Panic”
We’re all familiar with the type of highenergy
panic where you feel frantic and
out of control. But panic often happens much more quietly than that. What I call “stealth
panic” may actually be a more common cause of procrastination.
Stealth panic is what happens when you sit down to do your work at 9:00 a.m. and
then get a sudden, irresistible urge to do something else, like get a cup of coffee. You
don’t feel panicked it
actually feels like a calm, even trivial decision but
wham:
you’ve been bumped off your path. Sometimes this happens even before 9:00 a.m., so
that you don’t even make it to your desk.
Stealth panic often precipitates the trancelike
state we discussed earlier that
makes it easier for you to keep procrastinating. First you get the cup of coffee, then you
read the newspaper, then you make a personal call, and then you do some Internet
shopping and
then, wham!, suddenly it’s lunchtime. Perhaps you were semiaware
that
you should have been doing something else, but never quite aware enough, or focused
enough, to actually stop what you were doing and get back to work.
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen Covey
coming clean about Stealth Panic
Okay. I posted earlier about how I've gotten such good results from my psychological hobby. It's late now, 10pm, and I came back to read my CI from 8 hours ago. Then read this book excerpt. And I am reminded that my procrastination habit is alive and well. Because this is me on 10 mornings a month. I am sometimes hours late to work because I'm panicking in this way. I am always shocked at myself when this happens.
Just needed to come clean. Thanks.
Gnothi Seauton ~ Know Thyself
I went to the website
I went to the website yesterday, and saw that she has a free e-book:
The Little Guide To Beating Procrastination, Perfectionism and Blocks: a Manual For Artists, Activists, Entrepreneurs, Academics and Other Ambitious Dreamers
http://lifelongactivist.com/downloads
I haven't read it yet, but I no doubt will when I'm supposed to actually be working.
But, that time is not right now! I'm on a roll, so I'm going to try to get back to it... why? Maybe the dentist this morning, maybe cause I'm wearing a warm hat, maybe because I'm hungry (you think I'm joking? I keep looking for patterns as to why mostof the time, I can't get anything done, and then a few days, I actually manage semi-normal).
Eh, first post, but I'll post an intro later.