Leo Babauta - The Little Guide to Un-Procrastination

This is a Little Guide. Its not meant to be long just about every chapter is very short. Youll get the basics of everyones favorite problem Procrastination and then my time-proven methods for beating that problem.

A few key concepts are pounded home enough times that you wont be able to miss the message.

Then youll quickly be done reading, and be on your way to get amazing things done.

This book is Uncopyrighted, and written by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits. Read more about me in the chapter about My Procrastination Story, and even more at LeoBabauta.com.

Lets start with everyones favorite procrastination jokes about a procrastination book, just to get them out of the way:

• I know I should buy this book but Ill buy it later!
• Ill read it tomorrow! Hahahaha!
• I keep meaning to get around to beating procrastination, but

OK, thats out of the way.

Seriously, though, if youre a major procrastinator, you might just want to kick the procrastination habit but instead you keep putting it off. The reason is probably Fear.

If you do nothing else, skip to the chapter on Fear. At least if you procrastinate after that, youll know why.

Hi my friends. Im Leo Babauta, creator of Zen Habits and mnmlist.com, and author of the books Focus, and The Power of Less.

Im a habitual procrastinator. Its something Ive struggled with my entire life, just like almost anyone else. Its something we all deal with, to greater or lesser degrees. Im no exception.

In school I procrastinated so much I never did homework and despite great test grades (I always crammed the night before), I got mediocre grades. I did well in the newspaper industry and in politics, but I always did things at the last minute and barely pulled them off.

I had a million things I wanted to achieve in life, and yet I never got around to starting them.

Sound familiar? If youre a chronic procrastinator too, this book is for you.

In 2006 I found some solutions after repeated (failed) attempts to conquer the problem. In 2007 I discovered my passion and my productivity took off. I finally beat procrastination!

Truth be told, I still procrastinate sometimes. I get stuck on the Internet like anyone else. But I still get the important things done, and thats what matters.

Using the simple methods in this book, heres just a sample of what Ive done:

• Created Zen Habits, one of the Top 25 blogs according to TIME magazine, and have run it successfully for four years (as of this writing in 2011).
• Wrote and published several books in the last three years: The Power of Less, Focus, Zen To Done, The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life, and more.
• Wrote (but decided not to publish) two novels during two separate NaNoWriMo bouts, including one where I wrote over 110,000 words in a month.
• Created two other successful blogs: Write To Done and mnmlist, each with well over 10,000 subscribers.
• Ran several marathons and a couple triathlons.
• Co-created a successful business (with a fantastic partner, Mary Jaksch): A-List Blogging Bootcamps.
• I wrote this book in three days.

I did all of this, of course, with six kids and a wife. If I can do this with six kids, you have no excuses.

How I did all this isnt complicated. I followed the simple principles in this book. Im sharing them with you here in hopes that youll finally beat procrastination too and go on to do the things youve always wanted to do.

Whats so bad about procrastination? Honestly, procrastination isnt all bad see the next chapter, When Procrastination is Good. I enjoy it as much as the next guy.

But it can hurt us, which is why Ive written this book.

Some of the ways procrastination hurts us:

• It can stop us from getting our work done, hurting our performance at work.
• Even if we get the work done, we often do it rushed, or dont put everything we have into the job, resulting in substandard results.
• It can cause us to take longer than necessary, making us work longer and cutting into other things we want to spend time on like exercise, hobbies, relaxing, and time with family.
• Its a waste of the precious few hours we have on this Earth.
• It increases stress levels we think about what were not doing when were not doing it.
• It can prevent us from achieving our goals.
• It can hurt our self-esteem. When you procrastinate long enough, you begin to believe you are lazy, incompetent, undisciplined, maybe a loser. It can be difficult to stop yourself once you slide down this slope.
• It can prevent us from ever going after our dreams.

The last two items are the worst, in my opinion. If you read this book for no other reason, do it because you want to get off your butt and start going after your dreams.

It is the Puritanical nature of our culture (if youre from the U.S.) that portrays procrastination as an evil. During Puritanical times, there were even laws that made idling a crime punishable by law, not just by God.

Im no Puritan. I adore idling, Doing Nothing. Laziness is a desirable quality, in my mind. I am not a proponent of uber-productivity, of cramming every minute of the day with productive activities.

Far from it. Some of my favorite activities are purposefully idle: eating a great meal slowly, taking long walks, lounging in bed with my wife Eva, watching movies, reading a good novel, cuddling with my kids, taking naps. Ah, I love naps!

And so procrastination is not inherently evil.

It can be good to procrastinate if you are burned out and need rest, if you go and do something enjoyable with a loved one, if you find solitude and enjoy it, if you go for a walk and sort things out in your head, if you call a friend and have a great conversation, if you have an excellent cup of tea

The list can go on and on.

Procrastination can help us find space, to work at a more leisurely and sane rate, to think and contemplate, to work on our relationships.

But, as I stressed in the last chapter, procrastination can also hurt us in various ways especially in keeping us from achieving our dreams. So while I would never try to banish procrastination completely, dont use this chapter as justification for procrastinating all day long, every day.

Lets take a quick look at what makes us procrastinate. There are several usual reasons, which are related in various ways:

1. We want instant gratification. Resting on the couch is thought of as nicer, right now, than going on a run. Reading blogs is easier, right now, than reading a classic novel, and gives us much quicker enjoyment. Checking email or Facebook is easier, now, than doing that project youve been putting off, and getting a new email or post from a friend is instantly rewarding. Eating chocolate cake is tastier, right now, than eating veggies.
2. We fear / dread something. We might not write that chapter in our book because there are problems with the writing that we havent figured out (often because we havent thought it through). Or we might be afraid were going to fail, or look ignorant or stupid. Were most often afraid of the unknown, which has more power because we dont examine this fear it just lurks in the back of our minds. Dreading or fearing something makes us want to put it off, to postpone even thinking about it, and to do something easy and safe instead. See the chapter on Fear & Procrastination for more.