Procrastination

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In the book The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play by Neil Fiore, PH.D the author explains that procrastination is often confused with laziness and frowned upon, although procrastination is actually a coping mechanism we use to deal with the stress and anxiety associated with starting and completing task. In the text the author explains that procrastination is all rooted from inner fears such as: the fear of failure, the fear of being overwhelmed, the fear of being imperfect, the fear of success, and the fear of increased demands. Dr. Fiore gives the tools to identify when you are procrastinating and also to effectively be more productive while minimizing stress.
Procrastination is used mentally to comfort us and give us refuge from our deep inner fears. While it is often perceived as a character defect the fact is that it is really used to defend our self-worth and independence. As the author states “Generally we re taught that procrastination is the problem, rather than a symptom of other problems. This diagnosis, instead of directing your efforts toward ending the cycle of pressure, fear, and procrastination, unfortunately makes matter worse by blaming you for choosing such an awful habit.” The first step to overcoming procrastination is to stop criticizing yourself and to accept that you are in fact imperfect and human. Procrastination is actually rewarding as it helps us relieve some of our everyday stresses, the problem is we can become addicted to these rewards by learning to use it in three ways: as an indirect way of resisting pressure from authorities, as a way of lessening fear of failure by providing an excuse for a disappointing, less-than-perfect performance, ...

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...dentify when you are procrastinating and what triggers your procrastination was a valuable tool and I believe this is one of the biggest steps in helping one eliminate procrastination. My only complaint about the book is that at times it could seem a little repetitive.

This book would be a great read for anyone that has a problem with procrastination, as they could use these steps and tools to help them stay motivated and complete task in a timely manner. I would also recommend it to every college student as often the stresses and fear associated with school can lead to procrastination. Procrastinating can have catastrophic affects during your college career, and as one could become addicted to it, this is a high risk. It can become very easy to continue to push goals off but in an important time in your life like college, it is not the time to push anything off.

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