If you’re ambitious but keep procrastinating, please watch this.

Procrastination prevents us from living a fulfilling life, yet we still do it—why? In Procrastination, psychologists Lenora Yuen and Jane Burka argue that we procrastinate to experience short-term relief from our fear of working on certain tasks. Fortunately, they claim you can beat procrastination and learn to live a more fulfilling life if you accept reality’s constraints and learn healthier ways to manage your fears. In this guide, you’ll learn how to…

• Identify the fears that lead you to procrastinate
• Reflect on how your biology, circumstances, and self-esteem affect your procrastination
• Learn to set and achieve realistic goals
• Better control how you manage your emotions and time

Throughout this guide, we’ll contextualize the authors’ ideas among those of other experts, such as James Clear and Bhante Gunaratana. Furthermore, we’ll supplement the authors’ strategies with additional actionables, such as how to start practicing mindfulness and how to stop avoiding exercise.

Why do we put off the things that matter most to us, even when we know that doing so makes us unhappy in the long run? According to psychologist and productivity coach Neil Fiore, the problem isn’t that we’re lazy—it’s that procrastination is a symptom of the fear and anxiety we sometimes feel about our work. In his 1988 book The Now Habit, Fiore explains what procrastination is, why we do it, and most importantly, how to avoid it.

The Now Habit combines psychological insights and time management tips designed to eliminate procrastination by lowering our resistance to work. Fiore promises that if you follow his system, you’ll get more done while enjoying a more relaxed and balanced life.

In this guide, we’ll examine Fiore’s theory of procrastination and share his ideas about how to fix it. Along the way, we’ll update Fiore’s advice by drawing on more recent work in the fields of psychology and productivity.

You have goals to achieve and plans to make them happen—but you’re constantly sabotaging your progress toward getting them done. How? By procrastinating: leaving tasks for “later” or “tomorrow” when you could really be working on them today. In Solving the Procrastination Puzzle, psychologist Timothy A. Pychyl contends that you aren’t procrastinating because you’re bad at managing your time. Instead, you’re procrastinating because you haven’t learned how to handle your emotions—the negative emotions that pop up each time you consider working on a dreaded task.

In this guide, we’ll take you through Pychyl’s research-based insights into what procrastination is and how it’s undermining your ability to live a happy, healthy life. Then, we’ll dive into the reasons you’re procrastinating and explore Pychyl’s advice for changing your habits in the short and long term. We’ll also compare his ideas with those of other psychology and productivity experts who’ve studied procrastination, and we’ll look at additional strategies for changing your relationship with your most dreaded tasks.

You may not realize it, but your brain has an extraordinary capacity for complex calculations. Simple tasks like stepping over a garden hose as you walk across your lawn require elaborate computations, and yet they seem easy because your brain does them intuitively.

Barbara Oakley wrote A Mind for Numbers to help you learn math and science well enough that they, too, become intuitive. In this guide, we will examine Oakley’s explanation of your brain’s natural capabilities, her strategies for remembering complex concepts more easily, her recommendations for building good study habits and avoiding procrastination, and a few other tips for succeeding in your studies. We’ll also examine the scientific basis of her recommendations and compare her strategies to those of other experts in learning and memory.

Almost everyone has experienced situations where, despite knowing what they should do, they’re compelled by an inner voice to do something easier or more enjoyable. In The Power of Discipline, Daniel Walter explains that if you allow these temptations to dictate your actions, you’ll never reach your full potential. He argues that to combat temptations that hinder your success, you must strengthen your ability to self-discipline.

In this guide, we’ll explore what self-discipline is and why we struggle with it. We’ll also explore the biological tendencies that hinder our ability to self-discipline and how to strengthen self-discipline so you can achieve your goals and reach your full potential. In our commentary, we’ll explore arguments and methods from other books on attaining your goals and reaching your full potential, including Awaken the Giant Within (Tony Robbins) and The Power of Habit (Charles Duhigg).

Do you find yourself delaying important work until right before the deadline? Do you get distracted and overwhelmed by your daily tasks, unable to even begin them? Everyone procrastinates, but there are specific techniques you can use to counter that instinct. In this article, we’ll explore advice from four authors on how to overcome our tendency to put things off.

There isn’t enough time in the day to meet all of the work and personal responsibilities you’re swamped with, let alone keep up with email, social media, and all the things you’ve been meaning to read. In Eat That Frog, business consultant Brian Tracy says the answer is to identify your most important task—the one with the greatest consequences—and do that first each day. It’s like eating a frog: when you have a big challenge, or frog to eat, it’s best to get it out of the way first; everything after that will be easier by comparison. Based on this insight, Tracy offers a list of practical tips for improved productivity and success.

Many of us wish that we could become more productive, or increase the productivity of our organization. However, it’s not always clear how to do this. You may believe that you simply need to work longer hours or push yourself to work harder. But doing so won’t necessarily increase your productivity. Instead, you need to make smarter decisions about how you motivate yourself, focus, set goals, and use data effectively.

Smarter Faster Better explores the choices we can make to boost personal and organizational productivity. Learn how to build a productive team, how combining different types of goals can increase your productivity, and how the makers of Disney’s Frozen avoided box-office disaster by innovating productively.

Modern technology has us addicted to its use. While you might be aware that you’re addicted to your phone or favorite apps, you might not know exactly how you got addicted. It just happened without your noticing it.

Hooked provides a useful framework on how tech products build lasting habits in their users. Understanding this is useful for product designers and users alike. The core of the Hooked model is the 4-step feedback loop: Trigger, Action, Reward, and Investment.

You have goals to achieve and plans to make them happen—but you’re constantly sabotaging your progress toward getting them done. How? By procrastinating: leaving tasks for “later” or “tomorrow” when you could really be working on them today. In Solving the Procrastination Puzzle, psychologist Timothy A. Pychyl contends that you aren’t procrastinating because you’re bad at managing your time. Instead, you’re procrastinating because you haven’t learned how to handle your emotions—the negative emotions that pop up each time you consider working on a dreaded task.

In this guide, we’ll take you through Pychyl’s research-based insights into what procrastination is and how it’s undermining your ability to live a happy, healthy life. Then, we’ll dive into the reasons you’re procrastinating and explore Pychyl’s advice for changing your habits in the short and long term. We’ll also compare his ideas with those of other psychology and productivity experts who’ve studied procrastination, and we’ll look at additional strategies for changing your relationship with your most dreaded tasks.

Procrastination prevents us from living a fulfilling life, yet we still do it—why? In Procrastination, psychologists Lenora Yuen and Jane Burka argue that we procrastinate to experience short-term relief from our fear of working on certain tasks. Fortunately, they claim you can beat procrastination and learn to live a more fulfilling life if you accept reality’s constraints and learn healthier ways to manage your fears. In this guide, you’ll learn how to…

• Identify the fears that lead you to procrastinate
• Reflect on how your biology, circumstances, and self-esteem affect your procrastination
• Learn to set and achieve realistic goals
• Better control how you manage your emotions and time

Throughout this guide, we’ll contextualize the authors’ ideas among those of other experts, such as James Clear and Bhante Gunaratana. Furthermore, we’ll supplement the authors’ strategies with additional actionables, such as how to start practicing mindfulness and how to stop avoiding exercise.

Do you frequently delay important work until right before the deadline? Do you find yourself distracted and overwhelmed by your daily tasks, unsure of how to begin them? If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone—according to Piers Steel, nearly 95% of people say they procrastinate. To address this common problem, Steel wrote The Procrastination Equation, exploring strategies to help procrastinators increase their motivation and reclaim control over their time. By reducing distractions, building confidence in your abilities, and making unpleasant tasks feel more valuable for yourself, you can begin to overcome procrastination.

In this guide, we’ll discuss the reasons behind procrastination and its consequences, along with Steel’s strategies for combating the most common procrastination triggers. In our commentary, we’ll identify alternative strategies for managing procrastination from authors such as Brian Tracy and Matthew Dicks. We’ll also explore additional resources for combating procrastination.