{"id":102353,"date":"2023-05-18T09:55:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T13:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=102353"},"modified":"2023-05-18T15:12:08","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T19:12:08","slug":"the-procrastination-cure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-procrastination-cure\/","title":{"rendered":"The Procrastination Cure by Damon Zahariades: Overview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is The Procrastination Cure<\/em> by Damon Zahariades about? What are the main takeaways of the book?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Procrastination Cure<\/em> delves into the causes of chronic procrastination and how it negatively affects your life. Zahariades gives helpful tips to address each cause by removing distractions, increasing motivation, and managing your time<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read below for a brief overview of The Procrastination Cure<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Procrastination Cure<\/em> by Damon Zahariades<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Procrastination Cure<\/em> by Damon Zahariades is a practical handbook for understanding why you procrastinate and how to break the habit. A self-professed chronic procrastinator, Zahariades shares the strategies that helped him change his behavior, with the promise that you can apply the same techniques to manage your procrastination and enjoy a less stressful, more productive life<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zahariades left a corporate job to create his own business focused on helping people be more productive<\/a>. He\u2019s written other books on the topic, including The Mental Toughness Handbook<\/em><\/a> and The Art of Saying No<\/em><\/a>. He also posts on his website, Art of Productivity<\/a>, on a variety of topics related to productivity, including time management, habit formation<\/a>, and goal setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zahariades prioritizes concrete tips you can implement right away, which he presents as a list of 21 tactics you can adopt one at a time until you\u2019ve incorporated all of them into your life. For this guide, we\u2019ll integrate these tips throughout our overview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Procrastination Is Delay That Hurts You<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Zahariades defines procrastination as delaying action on something that\u2019s in your best interest to do now.<\/strong> He notes that this is more specific than just putting one task off in order to do something else, which can be a strategic choice. He emphasizes that everyone<\/em> procrastinates\u2014time is limited, and it\u2019s human nature to choose an activity that will bring immediate rewards over one that will bring future satisfaction. Your goal, then, is not to get rid of this tendency, but to gain control over it so that it doesn\u2019t cause problems in your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people, including Zahariades, believe procrastination is sometimes helpful. They distinguish between passive procrastination, where you delay the important task and instead do something with immediate rewards, and active procrastination, where you delay the important task but choose to do other necessary tasks that are slightly less important but still on your to-do list<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While critics argue that active procrastination is a failure of self-regulation, Zahariades believes it might work well for some people, such as those who thrive under pressure. But he recommends that anyone with a chronic procrastination problem first focus on getting that under control before experimenting with active procrastination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The High Price of Procrastination<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As Zahariades points out, you can\u2019t do everything, so every time you do something, it comes at the expense of something else you didn\u2019t do.<\/strong> Procrastination can have immediate consequences when you miss opportunities that require you to act quickly. It can also have longer-term effects that compound when you procrastinate in many areas of your life. For instance, imagine you put off going to the dentist for so long that now you need an emergency root canal, which you try to put on a credit card\u2014except it\u2019s maxed out because you haven\u2019t paid the bill in a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zahariades says he used to be a chronic procrastinator, delaying important things despite negative consequences in all areas of his life. His car was towed repeatedly because he never got around to renewing the registration\u2014other times, he had the new registration sticker sitting on his desk but never put it on his license plate. When Zahariades overcame his tendency to procrastinate<\/a>, he says he experienced greater success, as well as a sense of purpose<\/a> and satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Determine What Drives You to Procrastinate<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Zahariades recommends getting to the bottom of why you procrastinate, and under what circumstances, as that knowledge can inform which strategies will help you most.<\/strong> While procrastination is usually a way of coping with underlying thoughts, emotions, and impulses, the particulars will be different for each person. He lays out the most common patterns, which we\u2019ll summarize below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Identify your personal procrastination triggers by monitoring yourself over a period of a couple weeks. Every time you feel the urge to procrastinate, stop to assess your thoughts and feelings to see what might be behind that urge. Use the tendencies you notice to focus your efforts<\/a> on the root causes of your procrastination habit<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fundamental Issue: You\u2019re Wired to Seek Immediate Rewards<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Zahariades identifies several reasons for procrastination rooted in the fact that your brain instinctively prefers immediate rewards to delayed gratification<\/a><\/strong>. By the same token, immediate negative consequences are a compelling deterrent, but delayed consequences aren\u2019t. Put another way, procrastination is a conflict between the opposing interests of Present You and Future You. This explains why you may procrastinate when a task doesn\u2019t energize you or when it seems like nothing bad will happen if you don\u2019t do it. The more difficult and complex a task, the greater the reward your brain needs to perceive in pursuing it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, we\u2019ll discuss Zahariades\u2019s recommendations if issues of motivation or reward cause of your procrastination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make Distractions More Difficult <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Zahariades recommends eliminating as many distractions from your environment as possible and making them harder to access.<\/strong> As he explains, this works because procrastination starts with the urge to put off an important task first,<\/em> and then<\/em> you look around for something to do instead. The goal is to minimize the options available for where to put your time and attention so that your only choice is to refocus on the task you need to do. Meanwhile, if you increase the amount of time and effort required to start doing distracting activities, even just a little, it will be easier to ride out the urge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zahariades offers these suggestions for minimizing distraction:<\/p>\n\n\n\n