Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 3
A Day in the Life of a Procrastinator 4
What You''ll Learn From This Book 6
To Be Human Is to Procrastinate 7
Focus on Causes, Not Symptoms 9
Through the Looking Glass 10
Overview of the Book 12
Part I How Procrastination Affects Your Life 17
Chapter 1 Procrastination: An All-Too-Common Problem 19
What Is Procrastination? 21
Exercise: Are You Prone to Procrastination? 27
Can Procrastination Ever Be a Good Thing? 29
Exercise: Can You Spot Who''s Procrastinating? 33
Why Do We Procrastinate? 36
Chapter 2 That Mystical Land of Tomorrow: Lost Productivity and Abandoned Dreams 39
I''ll Get to My Academic Work, Later 41
Soldiering, Cyberslacking, and Other Garden Variety Forms of Workplace Procrastination 45
Can Chronic Procrastination Affect Your Career Prospects? 52
Exercise: Is It a Break or Procrastination? 55
Chapter 3 Can Procrastination Be Bad for Your Health? 59
The Toll of Procrastination on Mental Health 60
Exercise: Becoming Aware of How Procrastination Affects Your Mental Health 72
I''ll Look After My Health, Later 73
Exercise: Becoming Aware of How Procrastination Affects Your Physical Health 85
Chapter 4 Procrastination Through a Social Lens 87
Consequences for Friends and Family 88
Consequences for People in the Workplace 90
What Do Other People Think of Procrastinators? 95
Breaking the Cycle of Guilt and Shame 99
Exercise: Understanding Postprocrastination Guilt and Shame 102
Part II When and Why Do People Procrastinate? 103
Chapter 5 Procrastination Decoded: Why Mood Matters 105
What''s Mood Got to Do With It? 107
What''s Time (Orientation) Got to Do With It? 115
Corrective Lenses to Put Your Future Self Back Into Focus 126
Exercise: What Are Your Thoughts and Feelings Toward Your Future Self? 127
Chapter 6 Seek the Source 129
Blame It on the Task? 130
Procrastination and the Task Journey 132
Mindsets and Self-Doubt and Scripts, Oh My! 135
Tackling the Source 149
Exercise: Becoming Aware of How Your Beliefs Shape Your Feelings 150
Part III Evidence-Based Strategies to Help you Stop Procrastinating 155
Chapter 7 Why Mindset Matters 157
Why Your Internal Script Matters 158
The Benefits of Being Self-Compassionate When You Procrastinate 161
Cultivating Self-Compassion 174
Exercise: Responding to Your Procrastination With Self-Compassion 176
The Paradoxical Benefits of Forgiveness for Procrastination 177
Exercise: Forgiving Yourself for Procrastinating 181
Self-Compassion Versus Self-Forgiveness: Which One When? 183
Chapter 8 Perspective Matters: The Power of Reframing 185
Don''t Entrust Your Emotions to a Crystal Ball 187
It''s About the Journey, Not the Destination 192
Meaning, Lost and Found 198
Exercise: Finding the Why of Your Goals 208
Chapter 9 Embrace Your Future Self to Bridge the Temporal Gap 209
Mind the Temporal Gap 211
Walk a Mile in Your Future Self''s Shoes 219
Have a Conversation With Your Future Self 223
Exercise: Dear Future Self 227
Chapter 10 Ready, Set, Go! 231
Ready! The Art of Being Prepared to Act 233
Set! Set Up Your Environment 237
Go! Take Action 244
Exercise: Ready, Set, Go Checklist 249
References 253
Index 261
About the Author 273
