The Dual Blog Project

May 6th: It’s been a little while (almost a month, in fact) since I last added new content to this blog.

To be perfectly honest, I’ve been procrastinating about it – I just keep pushing the task back.   It’s frustrating for me, but I think that it’s important for my blog to be perfectly honest: if I’m having trouble, then I don’t want to sugarcoat it.

This post is an introduction to the Dual Blog that I am writing with Piers Steel (author of The Procrastination Equation).

He contacted me after reading the first posts on my blog, and we’re now working together to get rid of my procrastination.  I get to be a bit of an example, trying out different anti-procrastination techniques and then we will discuss them.  My perspective is focused on my experiences, and I hope that it’s an interesting read for others who are struggling with Procrastination.

The first “episode” of the blog can be found on the Psychology Today website.

The Procrastination Equation

Part of the inspiration for this blog was my results from the procrastinus.com survey; which called me a “master procrastinator”.

I have since gone out, and bought The Procrastination Equation book, by Piers Steel.   And this is my very-quick review.

Overview
The first half of the book talks about procrastination from many different approaches.  It’s talked about in relation to economics, history, our environment, technology, workplaces / institutions, etc etc etc.  The second half of the book introduces the equation itself and introduces strategies to combat procrastination.  The strategies are all backed up with scientific references, and are targeted to different parts of the procrastination equation.

The Good
The content of this book is fantastic.  Specifically the second half, where all the anti-procrastination strategies are discussed.  The author does an excellent job explaining the strategies and giving examples.  The best part is how it can be personalized; it’s easy to select the strategies that best apply to me as an individual.  This personalization comes from the structure of the book – by relating the strategies to each part of the procrastination equation, you can see how they would fit together to create a multifaceted anti-procrastination plan.

The Bad
Personally, I found that the writing style was a little bit simplified.  In particular, I rolled my eyes a little bit when the author was talking about the three example people that he’d created.  The content was still there, and very clear, I just would have preferred to have more of the science-y info.  (I guess I’ll have to look up some of the book’s references if I want to go deeper in to the content!)

The Ugly
This book hit very close to home.
As I was reading it, I could see the consequences of procrastination in my own life.  I could see how my procrastination behaviour relates to my personality and to my work.  This is all a good thing, because it means the book is a good one for me to read, but at the same time – it can be hard to face your flaws.

 

Bottom Line: If you are suffering from procrastination, then this book is a worthwhile read.

Grand Plan

How does one stop procrastinating?

I really don’t have a clue.

 

My overall plan is simple: keep trying until I am in control of my life. The key word in this plan is “trying.”  It means that I need to actively seek out new techniques and then honestly put in the effort needed to try them out.