We are all familiar with procrastination. As we sit on the couch guiltily watching TV or delay doing our taxes by doing the dishes instead, the remorse we feel hints to an innate source: “What is wrong with me — why am I so lazy? This happened last time too… why do I always have to wait until the last minute?” If you’ve ever had a similar conversation with yourself, you know why we believe we procrastinate: Because human beings are naturally lazy — work is boring — and if we are forced to do something against our will, we will put it off until the bitter end. This is the message that has been drummed into many of us since childhood, and now we may find ourselves trapped in recurring cycles of procrastination and the resulting self-inflicted torment.

For many books on procrastination, the answer to the problem is taming our supposed natural laziness and increasing the volume of guilt for better self-flagellation. If you made yourself feel guilty enough — you just might be able to get up and start moving! However, if you’re tired of feeling guilty and want to cure not just the symptoms of procrastination, I highly recommend that you read Dr. Neil Fiore’s “The Now Habit.”

Instead of drubbing “lazy, lazy!” into our heads, Fiore gives us a more palatable, positive and reasonable view of procrastination, based not on an idea of innate laziness, but on the idea that human beings are naturally productive, can and do enjoy a job well done, and that overwork and lack of scheduled free time is often at the heart of the dissatisfaction that drives us to put off work in the first place. By eliminating negative self-talk and challenging the idea that we need constant punishment to finish tasks, we can actually see an increase in our productivity and in the excitement with which we approach our projects.

How It Works

We procrastinate for many reasons, and according to Dr. Fiore, few of these reasons have anything to do with laziness. We may do it out of resentment for a system that only punishes mistakes without rewarding good work; we may do it out of fear of failure — or even fear of success; the fear that we would have little time to enjoy our triumph before having to climb an even more treacherous peak. Procrastination offers a temporary relief to a whole catalogue of anxieties. Then the harsh self-critic comes in — “I know what I should be doing, so why don’t I just do it?”

If phrases like “Just do it” did the trick, there would be far fewer procrastinators in the world, which is why Fiore offers helpful advice we can start applying immediately. This includes identifying what exactly is at the root of our particular problem; using procrastination logs to track the situations that encourage us to attempt escape; showing us how to set up safety nets to avoid the fear of failure; and teaching us the kind of inner dialogue we need to change our actions from involuntary (“I will do this because my boss/the deadline is forcing me to.”) to voluntary (“I choose to do this task, even if it is unpleasant. This is my choice — I am in control.”)

Scheduling Play

According to Fiore, procrastination is also rooted in a common misconception regarding time. This view states that a work-day is eight hours of solid work time and a weekend-day is sixteen. With all those hours, we assume that after work, time for personal relaxation, friends and family will naturally come to us. Actually, after we deduct all the coffee breaks, meetings, and co-worker chats, a work-day is much less than eight hours — and with all the chores and tasks that pile up, a day on the weekend may give us little time for unwinding. Fiore maintains that when we do not schedule time to relax — we steal it from ourselves in the form of procrastination and are unable to enjoy it.

In another technique that he calls the “Unschedule,” Dr. Fiore recommends that we schedule only non-work activities: Chores, mealtimes, sleep, errands, exercise—and fun. When we see how much time we realistically have for our goals after all the daily errands are deducted, we can be more reasonable in our approach to work, and enjoy the legitimate free time that is necessary to a healthy producer — the opposite of a procrastinator.

For readers who are tired of living in a cycle of guilt, “The Now Habit” is a comprehensive guide that identifies the root of procrastination, and offers varied techniques for changing the way we approach our work, goals and free time. Human beings, Fiore maintains, are born producers — they need meaningful work to feel joy in their lives, and by demonstrating how to tap into that part of ourselves, his system offers us a way to feel more in control of our productivity and finally eliminate the guilt.

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