Do you procrastinate? Do you know why you procrastinate? Have you been victimized by procrastination? Do you know what is responsible for this habit?
Procrastination can feel like a game of cat and mouse where you’re always one step ahead of yourself. You know that you should be writing your paper, but instead, you spend the time browsing the internet.
The books listed here are for people who want to appreciate their time more and stop wasting it by procrastinating. It will give you the tools needed to stop procrastinating NOW.
The idea of procrastination has been around for centuries, but only recently has it become an actual “disease” where people are diagnosed with chronic procrastination disorder (CPD). CPD is an impulse control disorder that affects an estimated 3-7% of adults in the world. It is a little surprising to see how it is portrayed in popular culture.
Thousands of people like you continue to suffer the negative impact of procrastination. With the uncontrollable use of technology especially social media, procrastination is gradually becoming one of the fast-growing habits among young people and adults.
Procrastination doesn’t only keep us demotivated from reaching our goals, it also has implications on our well-being and finances. If we can find a way to keep men and women motivated toward taking meaningful and timely actions, we would change the world.
This article is written to help you overcome or cure your procrastination habits for good. I have spent hundreds of hours researching why people procrastinate and have selected 8 of the best books that can help almost any cure the habit. But before you take any other action, let us first understand what procrastination means.
Procrastination is an act of intentionally and habitually putting off doing something that needs to be done. Procrastination can also be done unconsciously through behaviors that are grounded within a habit loop. This habit loop is usually activated by a person’s interpretation of a task or situation associated with a task.
Procrastination is not just limited to low-performing people. Even high-performing people sometimes procrastinate. This is true because neuro-chemicals in our brains play some roles in the formation of all habits – including the habits of procrastination.
What is more important in the habit of procrastination is to understand when your brain wants you to procrastinate and what behavior pattern is triggering that procrastination.
Understanding the type of procrastinator you are and the triggers associated with it will help you to overcome the habit much quicker. I have included some awesome procrastination cure books at the end of this article that will help completely overcome or cure your procrastination habit.
Procrastination researchers have classified the habit into primarily two main types: passive and active procrastinators.
Passive procrastinators: This group of procrastinators usually delay a task when they have trouble making better decisions or acting on the task at hand.
Active procrastinators: This group of procrastinators delays a task on purpose because they somehow believe that working closer to a deadline helps them stay motivated while completing challenging tasks.
Additionally, procrastination can also be classified based on six behavior patterns. These patterns include the following groups:
- Dreamer: This group puts off tasks because they spend too much time dreaming about the outcomes of a task instead of working on the task that will produce the outcomes.
- Defier: This group doesn’t like someone tell them what is to be done and when. They believe they should dictate their own activities and time schedule.
- Worrier: This group worries about how others will judge their performance. In order words, the reason for procrastination in this group is the fear of failure or criticism.
- Crisis-maker: This group delays tasks because they believe pressure or stress motivates them to work and therefore prefer working last-minute to deadlines.
- Over-Doer: This group takes on more tasks than necessary. Over-Doers think that if they said no to some tasks, it will imply that they are not good enough or will not be accepted by others.
- Perfectionist: This group is similar to worrier but with a perfectionist mindset. A perfectionist is usually afraid of not doing the task perfectly.
So what type of procrastinator are you? Note it down and begin the work of overcoming or curing your procrastination.
There are many reasons why we procrastinate. We may procrastinate due to fear, overconfidence, anxiety, etc. For example, whenever a person consciously or subconsciously believes that he/she will be susceptible to negative criticism if an action ends up wrong, it creates a form of fear that demotivates the person from working on the task.
Now, remember our brain is designed to protect us from danger. So when it receives a trigger (fear of being criticized), it activates neuro-chemicals that propel our procrastination behavior.
And when the perceived criticism is avoided, our brain sees it as something rewarding. As the fear of criticism circle repeats, it built into an automatic procrastination habit. In other words, the birth of chronic procrastination. To better understand how habits form, read the book “The Power of Habit“
So if this is happening at the neuro-chemical levels, what can be done to break the habit of procrastination? Well, like you, I was a chronic procrastinator. Sadly my procrastination habit affected so many areas of life. Some of effects procrastination had on my life included:
- Loss of valuable time with family and friends
- Missing out on precious Opportunities
- Hinders the achievement of my goals
- Affected my Self-Esteem
- Made lost of poor decisions
- Affected my reputation with my family, friends, and in the marketplace
- Affected my health and well being
Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate , we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases from Amazon.com.
It’s time to stop procrastinating and get more of the important things done! After all, successful people don’t try to do everything. They focus on their most important tasks and get those done. They eat their frogs.
If you are interested in improving your productivity and generally getting things done in our fast pace world, you could do much more the strategies layout in this book. David is the master of staying productive and getting thing done.
James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, highlights practical steps that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
Do you often struggle to get started on important projects? This book will help you overcome it
Are you feeling overwhelmed financially? Kate’s book helps you overcome money woes. After reading, there will be lot of ideas you will digest and go deeper in your understanding of money.
For over 25 years, Jim Kwik has worked closely with successful men and women who are at the top in their fields as actors, athletes, CEOs, and business leaders from all walks of life to unlock their true potential
This book is a blueprint for getting into action from a complete standstill. Understand and defeat your psychological blocks.
If Dopamine drives keys human actions, is it possible to leverage the power of this chemical to get stuff done? This book will help you discover lot more.
Finally, if you inspired or motivated by any of the books listed above, kindly leave an comment below that will help other women get inspired into action too.
If you would love to make a book suggestion, kindly leave in the the comment section as well. My goal is to get books that change lives in the hands of women who really need them.
