Free The Procrastination Equation by Piers Steel Page A

maddening mismatch between our desires and our responsibilities, as we overemphasize the present and sacrifice the future. We overindulge in the immediate pleasures of fats, sugars, and television, putting off dieting and exercise. We let loose anger and rage, putting off needed reflection and reconciliation. We have predilections toward the easy pleasure of promiscuity, risking long-term relationships and reproductive health for the forbidden but immediate. Each of these examples reflects a nature that was once adaptive but is no longer, a nature that outrageously values the now more than the later. The story, however, doesn’t need to end here.
    As The Procrastination Equation stresses, irrationally putting off is a tendency, not an inevitability. If we can accept our internal state of affairs, we can counter it. Instead of believing we have the temperament of divine beings, we can reconcile ourselves with our humanity—to the fact that we are flawed and compromised creatures—and act accordingly. We can make procrastination an irrational delay of yesterday, what we all once did or didn’t do, but only if we acknowledge our own limitations and adopt advice consistent with this understanding. To put it all into practice, you don’t need to ask permission. There will be no handwritten invitation. To live your life as you always wanted to, to be the person you always wanted to be, you know what to do. You are holding all the answers in your hands. Now do it.

Index
    The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.
    Boldface numerals denote graphs and charts.
     
    ABD (all but dissertation), 87
    abstinence, 134
    abstinence violation effect, 267n32
    academic dishonesty, 34
    academic procrastination. See students
    accountability partners, 171
    Adams, Douglas, 159n
    adaptability, 4, 212, 213
    adaptive genetic mutation, 52
    adventure education, 121-22, 125
    advertising, 75, 79, 179
    age
    and impulsiveness, 33, 162
    and prefrontal cortex, 49-50
    procrastination determinant, 12
    and relevancy factor, 144
    agriculture
    invention, 57
    sustainability, 112
    Akerlof, George, 29
    al-Ashqar, Umar Sulaiman, 249n26
    alcohol, 46-47, 49, 93, 132, 134, 136, 149
    Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), 134, 136
    Almost Perfect Scale, 12-13
    Ambient Orb, 181
    America Online, 101
    American Dental Association, 248n22
    American Economic Association, 29
    American Physical Therapy Association, 77
    Amusing Ourselves to Death (Postman), 78
    Ancient Egypt, 57
    Ancient Greece, 57-59
    anger, 46, 93, 165, 213
    Animal Farm (Orwell), 33
    animals
    and impulsiveness, 54, 55
    limbic system, 50
    optimal foraging, 54
    planning ability, 51
    procrastination in, 51-52
    anxiety, 8, 13, 38, 123, 135, 142
    AOL Video, 103
    AP-Advanced procrastination (group), 73
    Apple Inc., 77
    Apprentice, The (TV), 12
    approach goals, 144-45, 200, 271-72n16
    Arden, Andrea, 52
    Aristotle, 58
    Armstrong, Neil, 131-32
    arousal
    biological origin, 44
    power of, 165.
    See also temptation
    Art of War, The (Sun Tzu), 166
    associative cues, 178-82
    astrology, 4, 222n1
    attentional control, 173-74
    Atwood, Margaret, 11
    automatic enrollment plans, 108, 109, 115
    Automaticity in Cognition, Motivation and Emotion (ACME), 179
    avoidance cycle, 7
    avoidance goals, 144-45, 200
    Ayduk, Ozlem, 212n
    Ayres, Ian, 171
     
    Bacon, Sir Francis, 151
    Baden-Powell Award, 122
    Bagley, William, 67, 68
    bank accounts, separate, 182
    Bargh, John, 179
    Basex (co.), 105
    beauty pageant contestants, 223n6
    beauty, perception of, 54
    Bebo (social networking site), 71
    Becker, Gary, 101
    behavioral economics, 29, 108-9, 230n3
    behaviorism, 29, 151
    beliefs, 117
    Bell, Alexander Graham, 177
    Benartzi, Schlomo, 109
    Benchley, Robert, 105
    Bhagavad Gita , 95
    bicameralism, 113-14
    bill paying, 24, 84, 89, 98, 117, 146, 181, 182, 196
    bills, congressional, 110-11, 111
    birds, 55
    BlackBerry, 77,