Life-changing, 10/10.

The Now Habit is a comprehensive examination of the roots of procrastination which gives practical, concrete steps for overcoming this very common psychological and behavioral problem. Fiore gives good examples of how to take one's new found self-awareness, and to change one's often lifelong habit. An excellent way to start taking action both in one's personal and professional life.

Incidentally, I began this book while procrastinating on opening a file for a huge project. I can’t help it; whenever I feel overwhelmed by something, my first instinct is to aggressively avoid it, and my second is to search for tips on dealing with procrastination.

But, even if I am definitely procrastinating by reading this book, I find it was somewhat productive since it had none of the standard fare of “just do it” or “get it over with already”. Here, the author traces procrastination to negative self-talk and to fear. If you can become aware of the way you talk to yourself when you’re avoiding a task, then you can address that thought and correct the behavior. For example, we often make ourselves victim to a task by saying “I have to” rather than “I choose to”; we often pressure ourselves by saying “I must finish” when a more helpful prompt would be “When can I start?”

I also liked his idea about providing yourself with “psychological safety nets” for when we do fail at a task, because one of procrastination’s roots is a fear of failure.

All in all, this was a great book, very readable and applicable. I suppose I should try applying it by getting back to that project I was avoiding in the first place...

Или си Отлагач, или не си. Ако не си, няма какво да ти обяснявам, тази книга не е за теб, няма и да ме разбереш. Ако си, знаеш много добре за какво говоря – непрекъснато отлагаш работата, ученето, задълженията – отлагаш ги и правиш нещо друго.

И резултатът от това не само е че не свършваш каквото има за вършене, ами даже не си си починал като хората, защото докато не си го вършил, си се чувствал виновен че не работиш, притеснен си че няма да смогнеш. Но въпреки това продължаваш да отлагаш, продължаваш да се притесняваш че не работиш както трябва…

За човек, който не е Отлагач това звучи смешно – след като толкова се притесняваш че не вършиш работата, защо не вземеш да я свършиш?!? Особено у нас – даже не съм чувал в българския език даже да има дума за това, но това изобщо не значи, че го няма. Просто тука го обединяват с мързела. Но американците са изключително напреднали в изучаването на работоспособността и стремежа си да я увеличат. Там отдавна се знае, че психическите процеси, които водят до отлагачеството (procrastination) са причина за него и голямо количество изследвания са насочени към преодоляването му.

Нийл Фиоре е психотерапевт с дългогодишен опит в работата с хора, които отлагат. Именно от позицията на опита си, в Навикът да действаш Сега! Стратегическа програма за преодоляване на отлагането и чувството за вина той описва подробно как се чувстват хората, когато отлагат някаква работа, после описва защо се чувстват така, а накрая дава съвети как сами да си помогнат, за да могат най-после да си седнат на гъза и да свършат каквото имат за вършене, вместо да цъкат във фейсбука и да се чувстват виновни че го правят, вместо да работят.

За някои от съветите в Навикът да действаш Сега! знам от опит, че са верни, защото сам съм стигнал до същите изводи и техники докато съм се борил с отлагачеството си (сравнително успешно, смея да кажа, но има още много какво да се желае) – съставяне на подробни планове и разделянето на задачите на съвсем малки части, планиране на времето, самонаграждаване и т.н. Другите съм умерено склонен да ги пробвам, когато се наканя :P

Книгата ми бе любезно предоставена от издателство Augusta.

This book has got me to make progress on items that were pending for years. Wow.

Helped me a lot. I am doing my second reading, after 3 years. Hope to find more stuff to increase my performance.

I started reading this because it described to a T one of my biggest faults: procrastination. And frankly, a realistic solution sounded so nice. Because the guilt really does eat at me when I'm procrastinating.

In "The Now Habit", Fiore breaks down why we procrastinate (a myriad of reasons: anxious about it, don't want to, pressure of failure, etc.). And it might seem obvious to you why you're procrastinating, it's not until you call it out for what it is that you realize truly WHY you're procrastinating. For me, I realized a lot of it came down to feeling judged and perfectionism.

But the solution that Fiore gives isn't one that I would have ever thought. He basically says you should give yourself time to have guilt-free play (duh, that's in the title). But that's his solution!! In it's most basic form. He argues that letting yourself live and then come back to whatever your procrastinating will help you do better and work more effectively. Game changer.

Of course, you have to work through some other issues and this isn't an overnight solution, but I loved breaking down my problem and understanding that there were strategies to break free from it. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone struggling with procrastination.

The book was good in providing strategies in preventing procrastination for myself and for others (as a manager or a friend) but could be a lot better if it were more concise.

This book provides lots of useful tips on how to win over procrastination habits. It offers a clear perspective on why we procrastinate and what are the physiological reasons behind our behaviours. I think it is a good self-help book and it made me feel motivated to try some of the strategies that it suggests.

This was a pretty good read. A friend recommended it and as procrastination has been one of my banes for a long time, I requested it from the library.

I noticed other reviewers saying it was predictable and rehashed things they'd read elsewhere or seemed like common sense--but I definitely needed to read this one. Sometimes people tell you things over and over again but it never really clicks until the moment is right--and it simply never occurred to me that procrastination happens because it's an effective solution to stress and fear over work. It may only be temporarily effective and only effective in certain situations and may end up taking more time, effort, and energy than the alternative--but the immediate "I'm not doing work right now" relief overshadows these other details.

I took lots of notes on this book, and even if I don't use everything in it, it was definitely inspiring.

Solid advice but the book is probably twice as long as it needs to be. I think this might be better learned or communicated in a seminar, as Fiore tells the reader what he intends to write about, then writes about it, then summarizes - it becomes repetitive. Procrastination is a way to manage anxiety around perfectionism and protect your sense of self-worth if you've equated who you are and your value as a person with the quality of your work. Procrastination is also a habit that you can "unlearn" using methods like the unschedule, 30 min of quality work, rough drafts, and guilt-free scheduled play.

This book has a wide range of techniques for addressing procrastination. Very useful ideas that I'll integrate into my own life and also in conversations with my coaching clients.