Free The Procrastination Equation by Piers Steel

reports out this month too.”
    Just when Tom was starting to get comfortable in this role as leader and manager, word came down from higher up. Unlike most other department heads, Tom was getting his budgets in on target and did his performance appraisals ahead of time. His performance was exceptional and his department was consistently the most satisfied and the most productive in his workgroup. 4 Inevitably, he was to be promoted once again. The secret to Tom’s success was simply learning that what motivated other people was pretty much the same as what motivated him. To follow in his footsteps and become a better leader, you need to do the same. Good leadership is a skill that the world eagerly, even desperately, wants you to possess.
    A WORD OF WARNING
    Eddie, Valerie, and Tom benefited from enacting the principles of the Procrastination Equation, repeatedly hitting the three key components of expectancy, value, and time. When you put into practice the suggestions put forth here, you will benefit too. Just don’t overdo it. While procrastination can lead to an inauthentic life, in which long-term dreams sour inside you, so can our efforts to completely eliminate procrastination. 5 A genuine and autonomous individual seeks a life endorsed by the whole self, not just a fragment of it. Trying to squelch your impulsive side entirely is ultimately self-defeating; the wants and appetites that propel a life depend upon being attended to. Overregulation—seeking the perfect over the real—isn’t healthy and won’t make you happy. 6 You are going to have to find a balance.
    Just as the Procrastination Equation’s techniques can work too well, so could the techniques in Will Ferguson’s fictional self-help book. In his novel, after people read What I Learned on the Mountain, they did become blissful, contented, kind, and vice-free. They replaced their cigarettes and alcohol addictions with hugs and self-acceptance and swapped their oversized cheeseburgers with sensibly sized ones made from tofu. But all this virtue came at a cost: though everyone was equally content, they were also equally bland, interchangeable, and forgettable. Their personalities were whitewashed by their yearning to overcome all their flaws, and along with their vices so went desserts, fashion sense, and desire.
    Procrastination represents a single swing of the pendulum, an emotional short-sightedness that sees only the present. As the pendulum swings to the other side, rational far-sightedness can become equally troublesome; we tend to focus only on the future. 7 When asked about their past regrets, workaholic employees wished they had occasionally goofed off, and exceptionally industrious students regretted studying through Spring Break. 10c Consequently, optimal self-control involves not the denial of emotions but a respect for them. 8 Not all indulgent delays are irrational. You need to have moments of expression, when you can laugh freely with friends, or let yourself go to be indulged and pampered. Using the words of W. H. Davies, a vagabond Welsh poet of my mother’s youth: “What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.” To be idle, frivolous, spontaneous, and whimsical—these qualities deserve a place in our lives too.
    LOOKING FORWARD
    Nine thousand years ago, procrastination didn’t exist. Back then, if we worked when motivated, slept when sleepy, and acted on other urges as they came upon us, we did so more or less adaptively. In that golden age, our compulsions fit our daily demands like jigsaw puzzle pieces. We were designed for that world, life before the invention of agriculture. Fast forward nine thousand years and that same human nature has equipped us with inclinations that are ill-suited to the everyday. We have to-do lists filled with diets, early wake-ups, and exercise schedules, among a host of other ugly and motivationally indigestible ordeals. Almost every aspect of our lives reflects this