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,