As someone who procrastinates big tasks, I like to read articles and books about this topic, hoping that it helps me to overcome this bad habit. I really liked the book "Eat that frog", which I reviewed a few years ago for Managementboek (Dutch management book site). The thin book "The art of procrastination; A guide to effective dawdling, lollygagging and postponing" by John Perry was brought to my attention. I read the book in Dutch, it was an easy light read, but it left me a bit unsatisfied.
John Perry wrote an essay, in which he introduces the concept of structured procrastination. The book includes the essay and continues his thinking about his own procrastination behaviour and learnings. Structured procrastination means using the negative habit of postponing important tasks to your advantage. For example, giving a task a hard deadline and making them more important than they are. Or, wait till the task disappears (it works).
If there is one thing I learned from "The art of procrastination", it is not to feel bad about this behaviour. I'm not the only one who procrastinates (who doesn't) and I still get many things done, so it's probably not completely blocking me. The conversational tone and anecdotes in the book make it a pleasant read, but I didn't find the tips that I was hoping for. I got the feeling that the real message was "Sorry, it's no my fault, this is how I am, I can't really change it". An excuse for not doing things, or for waiting till someone reminds Perry of the deadline. Other books, like the earlier mentioned "Eat that frog" is more helpful.
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