Book Review: The Procrastination Equation by Dr. Piers Steel

I found that this book was a tale of two halfs. The first half of the book can be summed up with “Procrastination is bad.” Well, duh. We already knew that, or else we wouldn’t be reading a book about procrastination. 

Steel lays out an “equation” of “Motivation = Expectancy x Value / Impulsiveness x Delay.” On a surface level, that makes a sort of sense. You’ll be more motivated if you increase the expectation that you’ll succeed or the value of what you’re doing, or if you decrease your impulsiveness or the delay for the reward for what you’re doing. But the more you think about it, the less sense it makes to paint this with a veneer of math/science. How is this an equation? What units are each element measured in? And how is this useful? How are you supposed to change any of the elements?

The second half of the book is far more helpful. This contains a bunch of specific suggestions on how to break habits of procrastination. The suggestions don’t have all that much to do with the equation identified in the first half, but I don’t see a huge problem with that, since the suggestions are useful.

Some of the best suggestions were:

• Make sure you define your tasks in specific concrete terms rather than vague and nebulous terms. (Instead of “Get my finances in order,” “Create a monthly budget with a plan to pay off my credit card debt in six months.” Instead of “Get in shape,” “Exercise three times a week.”
• Break down larger tasks into a series of smaller tasks with subgoals where you can assign yourself short-term (ideally daily) deadlines. (Instead of “Clean out the entire house,” “Clean out this closet today.”)
• Keep separate computers for work and fun, and make sure your work computer doesn’t have any games, and has social media, entertainment, personal e-mail, and other time-wasting sites blocked. Or if you can’t afford two computers, at least have two separate profiles on your computer so you would have to make the effort to log out of one and into the other before goofing off.
• Install software on your computer to track and/or limit your time on wasteful sites.
• Eliminate distractions in your work environment.
• Create a “success spiral,” where small achievements give you the confidence for greater achievements.
• Visualize the rewards of doing your work, and the worst-case scenarios if you do procrastinate.
• Make bets/commitments to enforce your own behavior. For example, giving money to a friend to hold with instructions that he should donate it to a hated political cause if you procrastinate or fail to meet a deadline.
• If you most procrastinate, do something productive instead of time-wasting. Put off working on that report by cleaning the house or exercising.

None of these suggestions are incredibly novel or unique to this book. I’ve seen them other places. But it’s useful to have them all compiled in one place.

Overall, I found this book worth reading. I wasn’t blown away, but it was worth the time I put into it. It’s fairly short, and you can make it even shorter by skipping the first half. So if you have problems with procrastination, I would recommend this.

When you get around to it.