The Procrastinator's Digest

by Timothy A. Pychyl

The Procrastinator's Digest is a short and practical book. The focus is on understanding why and how we sabotage our own best intentions with needless delay, and how we can reduce this procrastination in our lives. Based on psychological research, and supplemented with short stories and comics to help make the content memorable, the digest format of the book provides a concise summary of key concepts and strategies for change. You will learn about the psychology of self-regulation failure and how to more successfully achieve your goals.

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Psychology, Productivity, Reference, Business

80 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 26, 2010

Reviews

[Helen (they or he) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book because I was procrastinating and wanted to delay the work as much as possible. But as soon as I put the book down, I did all the works I have to do.

Now, whenever I wanna procrastinate, I just look at the mantra I've taken out from this book and pinned in front of my desk. Then I get up and do it.

[Urtė Caspo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ko gero viena protingiausių ir naudingiausių kovos su prokrastinacija knygų. Autorius tinginį skaitytoją griebia tiesiai už kiaušų ir praktiniais pavyzdžiais parodo, kaip privalome save "sureguliuoti" tam, kad kažką prasmingo per dieną nuveiktume. Super.

[Hossein Naghdbishi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short, absolutely no-nonsense, and practical book for anyone who seeks a way out of procrastination.

However there's one caveat: Since the time this book was written, the notion that willpower is a finite resource has been questioned multiple times, despite this, Timothy A. Pychyl has, and offers a great insight into understanding procrastination, he recognizes that willpower is better understood when it's considered an emotion rather than a muscle. This is the book. The book for understanding your own emotions which are the root of procrastination.

This part of the book especially hit me hard:

I left each session more convinced of the importance of dealing with procrastination as a symptom of an existential malaise; a malaise that can only be addressed by our deep commitment to authoring the stories of our lives.

To author our own lives, we have to be an active agent in our lives, not a passive participant making excuses for what we are not doing. When we learn to stop needless, voluntary delay in our lives, we live more fully.

Loved it.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this book very useful. Not a long read at all so it should be manageable for basically anyone. Some complained about difficult concepts or difficult terms but I couldn't find any examples of either (I took 1 psychology class in college so I don't have a particularly strong background in the field or anything). I would have liked the book to be longer or more in depth in places but he explicitly states it was not his goal to write a long book (he also points to more resources at the very end) so I can't fault him here. The exercises he provides seem to be somewhat useful although I can't attest their efficacy as I finished the book only a few hours ago. Even if this book doesn't radically change your life I would certainly recommend it to anyone who tends to procrastinate at least as food for thought (the ebook is a reasonable $3). It certainly brings evaluating your behavior to the forefront of your mind.

[Shreeram Bhattarai · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading this book, I got a deep insight into how our mind works in procrastination things. Now, I am being more aware of those although it is very difficult to eliminate. A wonderful, short and concise book. It is helpful.

[Emin Yiğit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okuması kolay, 116 sayfalık bir kitap. Bazı önerileri yararlı buldum. Savsaklamayla mücadeleye giriş olarak herkes tarafından okunabilir. İnternet teknolojileri ve sosyal medya kullanımından kaynaklanan savsaklamaya daha fazla yer verilse daha da iyi olabilirdi çünkü günümüz savsaklama davranışlarının çoğunlukla sosyal medya kullanımıyla ilgili olduğunu düşünüyorum. Yine de verilen öneriler her türlü savsaklama davranışını önleme konusundaki plana uyarlanabilir.

[Dharma Arung-Laby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so encouraging! Giving me many pratical steps to reduce procrastination. As the book says "Never give in to feel good", "Two steps forward and one step back". And Now, let's "Just Get Started"!

[Lady V. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief and informative booklet, that is an excellent resource to get you started on the long journey of managing procrastination. I think that chapter six was a bit harsh, particularly to people with ADD / executive dysfunction for whom that itself is the problem.

[Sonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really nice, no fluff book.
Great first step for my journey to avoid procrastination.

[Gail Gauthier · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a marvelous book. It's very clearly written and organized. The author works from research, not his personal experience or opinion, which I sometimes find in books of this nature.

Pychyl is a Canadian professor and columnist for Psychology Today. He states that procrastination isn't simply a time management issue, which is how I've seen it addressed by others. It's a problem related to "self-regulation," similar to problems with eating, drinking, and dealing with money. Looking to time management, alone, probably isn't going to help true procrastinators. In every chapter, Pychyl describes "strategies for change" that may.

[Aviejit Faujdar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seriously a no non-sense guide to tackle the problem of "Procrastination". The best part of the book is that it is so concise and directly hits to the core of the problem. Though every chapter has "Strategies for Change", which are practical insights but at places the book becomes too theoretical (that's the reason I am giving 4 stars). Last chapter on technology and procrastination is like an icing on the cake. Overall I'll suggest this book to anyone who is serious in beating procrastination.

[Jon Lostroscio · Rating 5 out of 5]

The absolute best guide to overcoming procrastination.