Customer Reviews

A Procrastinator's Guide to Simple Living

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Jim McKnight's book is interesting, thought-provoking and a great motivation to anyone who wants to simplify their life but doesn't know where to start, or to people who know what they want or need to do, but somehow can't seem to actually do it. He thoroughly and convincingly covers the reasons why change is necessary, as well as outlining some of the things that stand in the way of moving to a long-term, more sustainable way of life: the problems facing us are usually presented by the Green movement with an emphasis on urgent and radical change. This is supposed to sufficiently scare us and stir us into action, but more often than not, it only makes the task seem insurmountable, and most of us resist change because - let's face it - going with the flow is just easier.

McKnight is fully aware of these problems, and as a psychologist, he also expands a little on the nature of procrastination in general. I found this discussion useful as I have a definite tendency to procrastinate. He goes on to offer practical suggestions and applies them to aspects of the voluntary simplicity movement.

I must confess that I skipped most of the chapter where he goes into an indepth discussion of interest debt - it seems a little too complex and heavy for inclusion in the book, and my guess is that anyone who was a chronic procrastinator would probably get bogged down and then just put off finishing the book. In fact, I knew that if I kept trying to plough through it, I'd just get disillusioned, so I skipped it kept going. I also skimmed the next couple of chapters on housing and communal living, not because they weren't interesting, but mostly because I felt it was a fair way beyond where I am at the moment (only finished studying recently, barely employed, still living at home and probably not cut out for living in a commune).

Overall I found the first two and the last two chapters the most interesting, relevant (to me), and easy to read. There are, of course, numerous other books that deal with the various problems we face associated with overconsumption and environmental degradation and the people that seek to solve them, but this book looks at the issue from a slightly different but worthwhile angle.