The End of Procrastination How to Stop Postponing and Live a Fulfilled Life

273 Pages·2019·9.34 MB·English

by  Adela Schicker, Petr Ludwig

At the core of this book are eight simple and practical tools for
Petr is a science popularizer, personal development, which will help you with your motivation,
entrepreneur and consultant
efciency, productivity and overall long-term satisfaction.
for Fortune 500 companies.
He explains crucial and difcult
things simply and easily. Petr � Why people procrastinate. What current
helps to improve intrinsic motivation, efciency science knows about procrastination.
and the happiness of people at work and in
� What decision paralysis is, and why
their personal lives. In his book and talks, he
transfers the knowledge of neuroscience and it has such a negative efect on us.
behavioural economics into practice.
� How human motivation works and
how to properly set it in order to work
in the long-term.
Adela is the co-founder of � How to fnd a personal vision, defne
Procrastination.com, an institute
your strengths and use them to do
that helps companies and
meaningful things.
individuals to reach their full
potential. Adela translated this � How your brain works from the
book and is helping it reach an international
perspective of self-control. How to
audience. She speaks at conferences and
strengthen your willpower.
trains companies worldwide, making sure that
science can be explained simply and made
� How to increase your efciency. How
useful for everyone.
to learn new positive habits and unlearn
the bad ones.
@petrludwig | @adelaschicker
� How to organize tasks and time so that
you can do more without getting tired.
� How to manage your own failures better
Cover illustrations © www.procrastination.com
and how to overcome the fear of change.
Author photographs courtesy www.procrastination.com
THE END
OF PROCRASTINATION
HOW TO STOP POSTPONING AND LIVE A FULFILLED LIFE
"Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the
certainty that something has meaning, regardless of how it turns out."
– V. Havel
Table Of Contents
Te Table Of Contents Illustrated 10
Author’s Preface 12
INTRODUCTION: What Is Procrastination and Why Fight It? 15
A History of Putting Tings Of 19
Today’s Age of Decision Paralysis 21
What Is the Most Efective Way to Get Information? 25
A System of Personal Development 31
Motivation 34
Discipline 36
Outcomes 38
Objectivity 40
Chapter Recap: Introduction 42
MOTIVATION: How to Get Motivated and Stay Tat Way 45
Extrinsic Motivation: Te Carrot and the Stick 47
Intrinsic Goal-based Motivation: Joy Tat Doesn’t Last 50
Intrinsic Journey-based Motivation: Happiness Now 58
Why Meaning Is So Important 63
Te Power of a Group Vision 71
So What Kind of Motivation Is the Most Benefcial? 72
TOOL: A Personal Vision 75
Personal SWOT Analysis 7
A List of Personal Achievements 82
An Analysis of Motivational Activities 84
Te Beta Version of Your Personal Vision 85
Te Final Version of Your Vision 88
Chapter Recap: Motivation 92
DISCIPLINE: How to Give Yourself Orders and Follow Tem 95
When Reason Says Yes, but Your Emotions Say No 98
Te Emotional Elephant and the Rational Rider 102
Cognitive Resources: Te Key to Self-regulation 103
Replenishing Your Cognitive Resources 105
Increasing Your Cognitive Resources 106
Building Habits: How to Train Your Elephant 107
How to Not Disrupt Habits and How to Maintain Tem 111
How to Break Bad Habits and Leave Tem for Good 113
TOOL: Habit-list 115
How Does the Habit-list Work? 116
Ideas for Expanding Tis Method 118
Why Does the Habit-list Work? 122
Potential Risks 123
Decision Paralysis 126
TOOL: To-Do Today 133
How Does To-Do Today Work? 136
Why Does To-Do Today Work? 145
Potential Risks 145
Ideas for Expanding Tis Method 146
To-Do today, Ideas, and Calendar 148
How Can You Deal With New Tasks? 150
Te Comfort Zone of the Masses: Te Birthplace of Evil 154
TOOL: Heroism 158
How Can You Train Yourself to Become More Heroic? 160
Chapter Recap: Discipline 166
OUTCOMES: How to Find Happiness and Also Keep It 169
Where Do Negative Emotions Come From? 172
Cycle of Learned Helplessness 177
How Can You Fight Your Hamster? Like a Veteran 182
TOOL: Inner-switch 188
Managing Your Failures 190
Overcoming the Blows of Fate 193
Switching From the Negative Past to the Positive One 195
TOOL: Flow-list 199
TOOL: Hamster-restart 202
Personal Growth and Personal Decline 205
Chapter Recap: Outcomes 208
OBJECTIVITY: Learning How to See Your Flaws 211
Te Dunning-Kruger Efect and the Blindness of the Incompetent 216
Sweet Ignorance: Te Guardian of Our Brain 218
Why Fight Non-objectivity? 220
How Exactly Can You Increase Objectivity? 222
Chapter Recap: Objectivity 228
CONCLUSION: Te Key to Longevity 231
TOOL: A Meeting With Myself 233
How Do “Meetings With Myself” Work? 233
Potential Risks? 234
Te End of Procrastination and Your New Beginning 236
BIBLIOGRAPHY 241
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 266