INTRODUCTION

IF YOU ARE READING THIS, it is probably because you are bothered by procrastination.

You may be even be reading this because you are procrastinating right now. You are avoiding some other task. I want to make the time you spend of task, right now, worthwhile.

That is the purpose of my writing. An hour from now, you will be prepared to act diferently. You will be prepared to be more successful in your goal pursuit.

Are you ready to get started? That is one of my most basic strategies: just get started. In this book, I explain why this works and summarize the research evidence for such a simple, practical strategy.

About this book

This is a short book-practical and no-nonsense. Although as short as possible, each concept, topic and issue presented has been carefully researched.

I have been researching and writing about procrastination for nearly 20 years. You can learn about my research at procrastination. ca. This Web site provides access to my research group and academic publications as well as my iProcrastinate Podcasts and"Don't Delay"blog for Psychology Today. I have had millions of downloads of my podcasts and blog entries. Like this book, these resources are research-based but meant to be very accessible for people who do not normally read psychological research.

The key diference between my blog or podcast and this book is the organization of the ideas. The blog and podcast cover a wide variety of important topics, but you would have to spend days reading or listening to get it all. The value of this book is that it is a digest of my research, and most importantly, this book provides a concise summary of key strategies to reduce procrastination in your life.

Why Is the Book So Short?

Too often, we start books, read the first chapter or two, and never pick it up again (although we intend to finish it!) .

Among procrastinators, this is a terrible risk. In fact, procrastination is defined by this intention-action gap. I do not want to contribute to this, so I hav