Book SummarySolving the Procrastination Puzzle, by Timothy A. Pychyl

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Solving the Procrastination Puzzle

All of us know (some of us quite intimately) what procrastination is. This counterproductive but irresistible tendency tempts us into putting off a task to get some benefits now in exchange for some costs later. In Solving the Procrastination Puzzle (2013), psychologist and professor Timothy A. Pychyl explains that by telling yourself “I don’t feel like it” and putting a task off until later, you prioritize how you feel in the short term over the goals you want to achieve in the long term. In doing so, you’re knowingly sabotaging your own progress, and you might not even realize why you’re doing it. Pychyl contends that procrastination is less of a problem with managing our time and more of a problem with managing our emotions. Without learning to handle the emotions that...

Solving the Procrastination Puzzle Summary What Is Procrastination?

Throughout the book, Pychyl corrects some common misconceptions about procrastination—like the idea that we procrastinate because we’re bad at managing our time or the belief that to kick the procrastination habit, we have to put a stop to any kind of delay that slows our progress toward our goals. In this section, we’ll take a look at how Pychyl explains what procrastination is and how he explains what procrastination isn’t (making a useful distinction between procrastination and other, more productive kinds of delays).

Procrastination Isn’t About Time, But Emotions

Procrastination is a choice to postpone a task you need to complete, even though you know that negative consequences will follow. Pychyl explains that when you choose to procrastinate, you deliberately make a decision that sabotages your progress toward your goals. But your knowledge that there will be consequences doesn’t make the habit any easier to overcome. That’s because procrastination isn’t rational: Instead, it’s driven by emotions.

You’ve likely heard that procrastination results from a failure of the cognitive capacity psychologists call self-regulation: the ability to manage your...

Solving the Procrastination Puzzle Summary Why Is Procrastination Harmful?

If you’re reading this guide, you probably realize that procrastination comes with some costs. Pychyl contends it’s important to be aware of the specific ways your procrastination habit works against you. After all, procrastination keeps you from putting your limited time to the best possible use, and this can have a cascade of consequences. In this section, we’ll consider three ways that procrastination can sabotage you: by hurting your ability to do your best work, increasing the negative feelings you experience, and undermining your health and well-being.

It Chips Away at Your Ability to Get Things Done (And Do Them Well)

Making a habit of putting things off hinders your ability to do and be your best. Pychyl warns that when you give in to procrastination and delay working on the tasks that your partner, your boss, or your friends are depending on you to complete, you don’t put your best effort into fulfilling your obligations. He warns that it’s easy to disappoint yourself or somebody else and regret it later. (Shortform note: In addition to letting down other people in our lives, we also let down our future selves when we procrastinate on important tasks. But...

Solving the Procrastination Puzzle Summary Why Do We Procrastinate, and How Can We Stop?

Procrastination is frustrating because we know what it is and we can see how it hurts us, but we keep doing it anyway. In this section, we’ll explore three forces behind procrastination: our desire for rewarding experiences, our trouble making realistic plans, and our lack of preparedness for obstacles and challenges. With each one, we’ll pair strategies that Pychyl recommends using to stop procrastinating and build more productive habits instead.

We Seek Out Rewards, and We Prefer Rewards Now Over Later

The first reason we procrastinate is that we want to have experiences that our brains perceive as rewarding—experiences that feel good rather than bad. According to Pychyl, this tendency explains two psychological causes of procrastination: your preference for getting a reward now even if there will be costs later, and your preference for a reward now over a better reward later.

We Choose a Reward Now, Even if There Are Consequences Later

One way that your brain’s love of rewards causes procrastination ties into the insight, which Pychyl emphasizes throughout the book, that you often procrastinate so you can avoid confronting the uncomfortable emotions or...

Shortform Exercise: Identify the Emotions Behind Your Procrastination

An important part of Pychyl’s framework for understanding procrastination is realizing that procrastination comes from trouble managing emotions, not trouble managing time. If you can figure out which emotions are causing you to put important tasks off, you’ll give yourself a better chance of getting the habit under control.

Think about a task that you routinely put off: maybe a responsibility you have at work or a chore you have to do at home.