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Top positive review
13 people found this helpful
5.0 out of 5 starsDon't Delay! Read it!
ByG.S. Zimmermanon February 28, 2012
I really, really, really like this book! I found it at the public library and thought it would be another lame, "make lists, set goals and priorities" book but boy was I wrong! Rather than letting it sit for a week, like I normally do, I read it straight thru in two evenings. I'm a recovering "world class procrastinator" so I was ready to be disappointed, as I have been with so many other books on this subject, but it wasn't to be! Bottom line: I like the fact that he has science to back up his suggestions and some clear, step-by-step ways to implement them. I bought the book so I could highlight the heck out of it (libraries tend to frown on that practice. Go figure?) and have started using the ideas that fit my pattern of "addiction" - and they are working! Maybe its just me, maybe its the book or a combination, but I'm getting results that other books haven't provided. Don't skip the evaluation quizzes in the first chapter and do the full online version as well - you may not like the results! If you really suffer from procrastination this might be a book for you. Don't procrastinate! Buy it now and read it!
Top critical review
3 people found this helpful
3.0 out of 5 starsGood read, but I was expecting more concrete ways to eliminate procrastination.
ByLineon March 16, 2017
Not a good how to book. Explained the history and the why of procrastination, but slim on specific tools and techniques.
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ByG.S. Zimmermanon February 28, 2012
I really, really, really like this book! I found it at the public library and thought it would be another lame, "make lists, set goals and priorities" book but boy was I wrong! Rather than letting it sit for a week, like I normally do, I read it straight thru in two evenings. I'm a recovering "world class procrastinator" so I was ready to be disappointed, as I have been with so many other books on this subject, but it wasn't to be! Bottom line: I like the fact that he has science to back up his suggestions and some clear, step-by-step ways to implement them. I bought the book so I could highlight the heck out of it (libraries tend to frown on that practice. Go figure?) and have started using the ideas that fit my pattern of "addiction" - and they are working! Maybe its just me, maybe its the book or a combination, but I'm getting results that other books haven't provided. Don't skip the evaluation quizzes in the first chapter and do the full online version as well - you may not like the results! If you really suffer from procrastination this might be a book for you. Don't procrastinate! Buy it now and read it!
13 people found this helpful
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5.0 out of 5 starsHighly insightful. I now see a light at the end of the tunnel - and I am steadily moving towards it!
ByMichael Millson March 10, 2018
This was a highly insightful and encouraging read. I didn't think I would ever overcome my chronic procrastination. Piers does a wonderful job in describing why we procrastinate and provides useful techniques to stop our procrastination in its tracks, or help us procrastinate more effectively.
Thanks to The John Batchelor Show for interviewing Piers on this great piece of work. Definitely a game changer for me.
Thanks to The John Batchelor Show for interviewing Piers on this great piece of work. Definitely a game changer for me.
ByLineon March 16, 2017
Not a good how to book. Explained the history and the why of procrastination, but slim on specific tools and techniques.
ByMolasenion February 28, 2015
A key to working on your procrastination angles.
ByRobert C. Gilliatt Jr.on September 4, 2012
I have looked for help in solving my procrastination for 26 years. As I read through this book, I had many A-Hah moments! The presentation is excellent and the book is an easy read. I was able to finish the book is 2 1/2 months.... I am so glad I stuck with it. I learned a lot about myself and how to properly attack the procrastination in me. After two weeks of completing the book, I am still seeing dividends and a good return on the tactics I learned.
ByLexopheliaon September 12, 2014
Don't you see the problem with a book about procrastination? I've put off reading it! Seriously though, how can it help one stop putting things off? I didn't find enough actual help in this book. There are lovely theories but nothing to really push me forward into action. I don't really know what would do that, do I? If I did, I wouldn't need a book supposed to cure my procrastination. The only thing that has ever done the trick was waking up the morning before something was due and a combination of panic and fear pushing me out of bed and into work mode. Or working all night before something was due the next morning. How to get past that is what I really wanted to know. It's somehow not in there.
ByGreen Roseon December 7, 2013
Heard this about this book on a procrastination website. Excellent book. I'm rereading it again, highlighting portions that inspire me. I was really getting trapped and losing opportunities to even make extra money because of falling into the abyss of the "putting off until later" syndrome. Lots of notations and citations. Adds to the validity of the writer's expertise. Wish I read it earlier as I could have accomplished much more. I'm already doing some healing which starts with quit blaming oneself. I'm wired this way and I CAN learn to live with this in a more productive way. That's what I learned.
ByJay Stanleyon June 1, 2013
Mr. Steel is a self-professed "expert" on procrastination. How having a PhD in "Industrial-Organizational Psychology" qualifies him to write a book on procrastination is beyond me. The only thing that Steel is an "expert" in is self-promotion.
Steel's revelation to all those who struggle through life with procrastination is this one magical equation: motivation = expectancy x value / impulsiveness x delay. He spends pages and pages explaining how he painstakingly developed this equation, seemingly for no other reason than to give it an aura of importance. It's all for effect.
_
Here is his simpleton advice to overcome procrastination (from a chapter actually entitled "Optimizing Optimism") .
"1. Action Points for Success Spirals: Think of an area in your life of real interest and then strive to improve just a little beyond your present skill set."
"2. Action Points for Vicarious Victory. Seek inspiration from stories or, better yet, from social groups."
"3. Action points for Wish Fulfillment. Fans of creative visualization don't have to stop what they are doing; they just need to add to it."
_
Mr. Steel is nothing more than a carnival charlatan. There is not one ounce of useful information in this book that someone could use to attempt to overcome procrastination.
If you suffer with chronic procrastination (as I do) you should:
1) visit the Procrastinators Anonymous website; and
2) read everything you can about the term "demand resistance" -- which is the real underlying cause of chronic procrastination. Once you realize what it is that compels you to procrastinate, you have a fighting chance of controlling your procrastination impulse.
Steel's revelation to all those who struggle through life with procrastination is this one magical equation: motivation = expectancy x value / impulsiveness x delay. He spends pages and pages explaining how he painstakingly developed this equation, seemingly for no other reason than to give it an aura of importance. It's all for effect.
_
Here is his simpleton advice to overcome procrastination (from a chapter actually entitled "Optimizing Optimism") .
"1. Action Points for Success Spirals: Think of an area in your life of real interest and then strive to improve just a little beyond your present skill set."
"2. Action Points for Vicarious Victory. Seek inspiration from stories or, better yet, from social groups."
"3. Action points for Wish Fulfillment. Fans of creative visualization don't have to stop what they are doing; they just need to add to it."
_
Mr. Steel is nothing more than a carnival charlatan. There is not one ounce of useful information in this book that someone could use to attempt to overcome procrastination.
If you suffer with chronic procrastination (as I do) you should:
1) visit the Procrastinators Anonymous website; and
2) read everything you can about the term "demand resistance" -- which is the real underlying cause of chronic procrastination. Once you realize what it is that compels you to procrastinate, you have a fighting chance of controlling your procrastination impulse.
ByS. Horwatton January 22, 2011
I thought most of the first half of this book, which talks about the causes of procrastination (which can more-or-less be boiled down to "people put off doing stuff they don't like, people put off stuff they think is pointless, and people put off stuff that seems like it's not due for quite a while"), was interesting. The author does go on a bit about the societal costs of procrastination (we GET it...it's bad), but the information on the behavioral science and evolutionary roots of procrastination was interesting stuff.
However, when I got to the author's revolutionary techniques for eliminating procrastination, they seemed...less than revolutionary. Maybe part of the reason is that he speeds through the description of many of the techniques, not really providing enough information to implement many of them unless you go out and do more reading on them. There were one or two tips that I thought were good, and that may be enough for anyone who has a huge problem with procrastination to make some significant improvements.
The final chapter, in which the author writes a series of short stories about fictitious procrastinators who change their lives radically after reading his book was just tiresome and annoying. Sort of like being forced to watch a 30-minute infomercial about a product you've ALREADY BOUGHT. So skip that, because there's really nothing worthwhile in the "putting it all together chapter."
And a bit of personal advice: if you read this book, don't tell anyone you're reading it, because you'll be subjected to a series of rants about how stupid it seems to try to remedy procrastination by reading a book about it (for some reason, even people who believe in self-help books seem to think that procrastination is a problem that any type of self-help effort can only aggravate, not alleviate).
However, when I got to the author's revolutionary techniques for eliminating procrastination, they seemed...less than revolutionary. Maybe part of the reason is that he speeds through the description of many of the techniques, not really providing enough information to implement many of them unless you go out and do more reading on them. There were one or two tips that I thought were good, and that may be enough for anyone who has a huge problem with procrastination to make some significant improvements.
The final chapter, in which the author writes a series of short stories about fictitious procrastinators who change their lives radically after reading his book was just tiresome and annoying. Sort of like being forced to watch a 30-minute infomercial about a product you've ALREADY BOUGHT. So skip that, because there's really nothing worthwhile in the "putting it all together chapter."
And a bit of personal advice: if you read this book, don't tell anyone you're reading it, because you'll be subjected to a series of rants about how stupid it seems to try to remedy procrastination by reading a book about it (for some reason, even people who believe in self-help books seem to think that procrastination is a problem that any type of self-help effort can only aggravate, not alleviate).
2.0 out of 5 starsWould not Recommend, Especially if You're Looking for "Curing" Your Own Procrastination.
ByFit'n Fiftyon July 7, 2014
didn't like the authors style. In essence, boring.
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