"Knauss original book Overcoming Procrastination has helped thousands of people dealing with this endemic problem of delaying tasks in their personal and professional lives, causing them endless hours of anxiety and possibly depression. This latest workbook not only incorporates those timeless principles of overcoming procrastination but adds excellent exercises to reinforce their learning. The action plans help individuals integrate their learning for lasting results. Everyone could use this book." Dominic DiMattia, Ed.D., Executive Director, Albert Ellis Institute "In introducing his ideas, Knaus takes us back over a century in psychology, quoting William James: By changing our thinking, we can change our lives. Weve certainly known this for a long time, but it is in the individual realization of this simple truth that we can enhance our well being. This procrastination workbook provides a useful tool for readers who are actively engaged in the challenging process of self-change and are ready to change their lives through changing their thinking about procrastination." Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa "Procrastinators need all the help they can get, especially in maintaining progress toward overcoming what is a rather common phenomenon. The Procrastination Workbook is a valuable resource for those seeking to change. It is a great contribution at both the conceptual and applied levels. It is a valuable resource for mental health professionals and those of their clients who are procrastinators." Stephen G. Weinrach, Ph.D., Professor, Villanova University "Although this self-help guide to procrastination cessation has a serious purpose, it is amazingly entertaining. Rife with amusing and illuminating quotes, quips, and anecdotes, the medicine goes down easily and one is propelled on a wave of enthusiasm and zeal into a new groove by a host of thoughtful, pragmatic exercises." Joseph Gerstein, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School "Bill Knaus tells us that when we procrastinate, we take unwanted tasks and drag them through the present and into the future. In a delightful way, this workbook tells how to unburden your tomorrows from these procrastination sorrows and find ways to truly enjoy your life. Buy the book and start today!" Richard C. Sprinthall, Ph.D., Director of Graduate Studies, American International College William Knaus, Ed.D. Foreword by Albert Ellis, Ph.D. New Harbinger Publications, Inc. Contents Foreword v Introduction I Part I Basic Ways to Get Things Done Chapter I Procrastination Machinations 7 Chapter 2 Procrastination and Blame I9 Chapter 3 Procrastination Patterns 29 Chapter 4 Procrastination Complications 45 Chapter 5 First Things First 57 iv I The Procrastination Workbook Chapter 6 Get Your Bearings 61 Chapter 7 Mobilize for Positive Change 73 Chapter 8 Change and Procrastination 79 Part II Advanced Techniques and Special Topics Chapter 9 Procrastination Diversions 101 Chapter 10 Procrastination Habit Processes 1 09 Chapter 11 Decision Making and Risk Taking 115 Chapter 12 Procrastination in Learning 1 23 Chapter 13 Exercise, Weight, and Stress 135 Chapter 14 The Rewards of Time 1 49 Chapter 15 Advancing While Others Procrastinate 155 References 1 71 Foreword As I happily remember my first association with Bill Knaus, I am still surprised to recall that it was when he was in graduate school at the University of Tennessee in 1965. He came to one of my workshops in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), and I was amazed that he seemed to grasp the essence of this form of psychotherapy with remark- able acuity and ability. I concluded at that time that he was both born and raised with an unusual tendency to think rationally. How right I was! Shortly afterward, Bill became one of the training fellows of the Albert Ellis Institute in New York—and, once again, proved to be one of the outstanding practitioners of REBT that the institute has certified. Since 1968, Bill has not only ably practiced REBT with many clients and with a good many business, educational, and other organizations, but he has also written extensively about its use in a number of important areas. He has pioneered in writing with Rational Emotive Education, the first book to apply REBT approach to teachers and educators. He especially fostered the REBT approach to procrastination in the early 1970s by writing a pamphlet and taping a cassette recording both entitled Overcoming Procrastination, which have been bestsellers since that time. In 1977 he joined me in writing the first major book, again entitled Overcoming Procrastination, which has been in print with New American Library since that time and is one of their fastest-selling titles ever. After writing several other books and pamphlets on the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy approach to a number of other fields, Bill has very ably summed up many of his main contributions to self-help therapy by writing The Procrastination Workbook. This is an outstanding contribution for people who want to work effectively on what Bill wisely calls the Do It Now philosophy. It beautifully shows its readers how to stop delaying and interfering with their lives in several crucial areas—personal, family, social, school, and work areas. The Procrastination Workbook, like Bills other excellent self-help books, is written in an exceptionally lucid and readable style, includes many thinking, feeling, and vi I The Procrastination Workbook behavioral exercises, and is practical and hardheaded as any book could be. Dont pro- crastinate! Read this book now and really discover how to apply its host of very useful self-management methods, so that they appreciably add to your happiness, health, and effective living now! Albert Ellis, Ph.D., President Albert Ellis Institute Introduction Upon hearing the word "procrastination," you might imagine a pile of unpaid bills, a dis- organized closet, an extension form for taxes that were due on April 15, people showing up late, an expired auto-inspection sticker, or telling yourself that you will respond to an emergent priority, such as returning a phone call, then forgetting to follow through. These examples of missing deadlines, rushing to meet them at the eleventh hour, or pushing them off until you remember to do them are classic examples of procrastination. Often the more common form of procrastination involves activities that you want to do or think are beneficial, such as taking on a new hobby, exercising more, or facing an inhi- bition or fear. Because these personal-development challenges are "just about you," they often lay fallow. Whether handicapping or troublesome, few escape the perils of procrastination. Per- sistent forms of procrastination are serious problems for hundreds of millions. Perhaps as many as 90 percent of the U.S. population has at least one area (and probably more) where they feel stumped by procrastination (Ellis and Knaus 1979). Procrastination research psychologists Jesse Harriot and Joseph Ferrari (1996) estimate that 20 percent are afflicted with an invasive, handicapping, chronic variety of procrastination. Even top executives fritter time in aimless ways, such as busy work, postponing important deci- sions, avoiding uncomfortable priority situations, checking their stock portfolios several times an hour, phoning acquaintances, attending to business unrelated to the organiza- tion, or engaging in senseless squabbling. Sixty percent of college students consider pro- crastination a habit serious enough to require help in overcoming it. Regardless of your age or role in life, it is the persistent, pressured form of procrastination urges and distrac- tions that merit close attention and special efforts to contain. Fortunately, there is a great deal you can do to curb your procrastination impulses, to take charge of your life, and to advance your positive values and interests. 2 I The Procrastination Workbook Procrastination is one of those equal-opportunity afflictions that can strike any- where, at any level and at any stage of your life. People who procrastinate come from everywhere, including every walk of life and occupation. We catch children in the act of procrastinating when they say, "Not now, Mom." Retirees without specific plans easily procrastinate their time away. Truly, few go through life without experiencing the effects of procrastination. Delays on meeting deadlines are the tip of a titanic procrastination iceberg. Beneath the surface, you can find a broad range of maintenance and personal development delays that also can prove chilling and painfully limiting. What well call "maintenance procras- tination" involves such matters as letting your environment fill with needless clutter. "Personal procrastination" includes putting off dealing with anxiety, delaying on starting a weight-loss program, or doing a hesitation waltz when you want to approach someone whom you find attractive. These personal-development forms of procrastination occur when we think we have all the time in the world to address a general development issue, stretching that opportunity too far into the future. For example, you want to lose weight—but not right now. Perhaps after the holidays youll start. Then after the holi- days, you find another reason to delay. Deadline, maintenance, and personal- development delays are mainly self-handicapping. Some can have broader social implica- tions, such as when delays hinder others. Postponing paying bills and putting off coping with, say, a fear of rejection come from the same desire to avoid fear, discomfort, tedium, boredom, or some other negative emotion or sensation. Although some activities you face will be truly unpleasant, a big advantage in getting them over with is to decrease the time you feel hassled by them. Each form of procrastination typically includes a "mariana illusion," where we filter reality through a false hope that the delay wont hurt anyone and the future will be better because we can later control what we delay today. In the world of the consummate procrastinator, this rarely happens.