The Procrastination Cure
7 Steps to Stop Putting Life Off
Book Edition Details
Summary
"The Procrastination Cure (2013) is a practical and motivational guide to overcoming procrastination. It offers strategies and personal insights to diagnose and address the root causes of this behavior, enabling readers to balance productivity and relaxation without guilt."
Introduction
What if the very thing holding you back from your dreams isn't lack of talent, resources, or opportunity, but a pattern so deeply ingrained you barely notice it? Procrastination affects 15 to 20 percent of adults routinely, with college students showing even higher rates of chronic delay. Yet this isn't simply about poor time management or laziness. Procrastination is an effect, not a cause. Behind every delayed project, every missed deadline, every moment of "I'll do it tomorrow" lies a deeper emotional trigger waiting to be understood and transformed. The financial costs alone are staggering, with Americans overpaying $473 million in taxes annually due to last-minute rushing and errors. But the real cost isn't monetary, it's the pain of regret and unrealized potential. This journey isn't about becoming perfect or eliminating all delay from your life. It's about understanding why you procrastinate in specific areas and developing the awareness to transform those patterns. The path from chronic procrastination to purposeful production begins with a single recognition: you are not a procrastinator, you are someone who procrastinates in isolated areas where you perceive pain or rebel against expectations.
Understand Your Procrastination Type and Root Causes
Understanding your procrastination type is like finding the key to a lock you've been struggling with for years. Just as there are different personality types, there are distinct procrastination patterns, each with unique triggers and underlying causes. The six primary types include the Neurotic Perfectionist, the Big-Deal Chaser, the Chronic Worrier, the Rebellious Procrastinator, the Drama Addict, and the Angry Giver. Each type procrastinates for different reasons and requires specific strategies for transformation. Consider the story of John, an insurance salesman who spent three years "getting ready to get ready" for his entrepreneurial venture. He attended seminars, listened to CDs, and surrounded himself with successful mentors, yet never made a single prospecting call. During coaching, it emerged that John was the unwanted eighth child in his family, born seven years after his nearest sibling. His mother had told him she "cried every night for six months" upon discovering her pregnancy. This abandonment created a chronic worrier pattern where John needed everything perfect before he could begin, fearing any mistake would confirm his unworthiness. Through patient exploration, John learned to separate his childhood trauma from his adult capabilities. He realized his procrastination wasn't laziness but a protective mechanism against perceived rejection. By understanding this cause-and-effect relationship, John began taking small, imperfect actions. He started with just two phone calls per day, celebrating each attempt regardless of outcome. This gentle approach honored his emotional triggers while building new neural pathways of courage and self-worth. To identify your type, observe your self-talk when facing challenging tasks. Do you hear perfectionist demands, grandiose fantasies, worried predictions, rebellious defiance, dramatic crises, or overwhelming obligations? Each inner voice points to a specific emotional wound seeking healing. The Neurotic Perfectionist fears making mistakes because past criticism created shame. The Big-Deal Chaser avoids mundane tasks because they feel entitled to spectacular success without effort. The Chronic Worrier gets paralyzed by "what if" scenarios stemming from early instability or judgment. Start by asking yourself three key questions: When did this procrastination pattern begin? What events or people shaped this response? What am I actually trying to control by delaying action? Remember, procrastination is always about control, either controlling outcomes we can't actually control or controlling our exposure to perceived pain. The goal isn't to eliminate all hesitation but to recognize when delay serves you versus when it holds you captive to old wounds that no longer need to define your present reality.
Transform Feelings That Create Procrastination Effects
The heart of procrastination recovery lies in transforming the emotional landscape that triggers delay patterns. Since procrastination originates in the left brain's fear-based thinking, the solution requires accessing your right brain's creative, intuitive wisdom. This transformation begins with recognizing that thoughts become feelings, feelings become moods, and moods become identity. When you identify as "a procrastinator," you've trapped yourself in a limiting story that perpetuates the very behavior you wish to change. The journey from procrastination to production requires developing what could be called "relaxed intensity" rather than the frantic intensity that characterizes most delay patterns. This involves learning to work with sustainable energy rather than the adrenaline addiction that keeps many procrastinators stuck in cycles of crisis and rescue. The shift happens when you stop trying to control outcomes and start focusing on consistent, imperfect action. Consider the profound transformation possible when you release the need to be right so you can be rich in experience and results. This means letting go of perfectionist standards that paralyze you, grandiose dreams that overwhelm you, worried predictions that frighten you, rebellious stances that limit you, dramatic crises that exhaust you, and over-giving patterns that deplete you. Each release creates space for new possibilities to emerge. The transformation process requires developing forgiveness as a practical skill, not just a noble concept. Forgiveness means releasing your grip on past events that created your current procrastination patterns. This doesn't mean excusing harmful behavior or pretending trauma didn't matter. It means refusing to let past pain dictate your present choices. Forgiveness is permission-based, something only you can grant yourself. Begin by forgiving yourself for procrastinating, understanding that it was a logical response to emotional circumstances you couldn't control. Practice replacing procrastination-inducing thoughts with recovery-focused affirmations. Instead of "I always put things off," try "I procrastinate in isolated areas that I'm learning to understand and heal." Rather than "I'm so overwhelmed," experiment with "I'm breaking this down into manageable pieces." Transform "I don't have enough time" into "I'm learning to create time by eliminating what doesn't serve me." These shifts might seem small, but they create new neural pathways that support productive action rather than paralyzing delay.
Build Seven Daily Habits of Recovering Procrastinators
The transformation from procrastination to production requires establishing seven specific daily habits that create structure without rigidity, progress without perfection, and results without overwhelming pressure. These habits form the foundation of sustainable change, allowing you to build momentum through small, consistent actions rather than dramatic overhauls that often lead to burnout and relapse. Habit one involves managing yourself in time by breaking large tasks into 15-minute increments. This approach transforms overwhelming projects into manageable actions. Whether organizing a cluttered garage or starting a business venture, committing to just 15 minutes of focused effort creates progress without triggering fight-or-flight responses. These brief sessions often extend naturally as momentum builds, but the low commitment threshold prevents the emotional overwhelm that typically triggers procrastination. The second habit focuses on setting small, achievable goals rather than grandiose objectives that invite procrastination. Instead of vowing to earn a million dollars in your first year of entrepreneurship, commit to making two prospecting calls daily or writing two pages of your book project. Small victories build the confidence and neural pathways necessary for larger achievements. Remember, you can't become a millionaire until you first stop "sucking air" financially. Each small goal achieved creates evidence that you're becoming someone who follows through on commitments. Habits three and four work together: performing the task itself rather than preparing to prepare, and writing things down to create external structure for internal chaos. Many procrastinators spend more time organizing their tools than using them, more time planning than executing, more time reading about success than creating it. The antidote is immediate action, however imperfect, combined with simple list-making that tracks progress and creates accountability. Use whatever organizational system works for you, but use something consistently. The remaining habits address common procrastination triggers: eliminating distractions that scatter your attention, becoming reward-conscious to maintain motivation, and developing self-evaluation skills that allow course correction without self-attack. Eliminating distractions means creating boundaries around your productive time, whether that involves turning off social media notifications, establishing office hours that family members respect, or choosing environments that support focus rather than scattered attention. The final habit, self-evaluation, provides the objectivity necessary for sustainable change. This means celebrating progress while honestly assessing what isn't working, adjusting strategies without abandoning goals, and maintaining perspective during inevitable setbacks. Recovery from procrastination isn't a straight line but a spiral of increasing effectiveness and decreasing delay.
Summary
The journey from chronic procrastination to purposeful production represents one of the most powerful transformations available to the human spirit. As this exploration has revealed, procrastination isn't a character flaw or moral failing but a learned response to emotional triggers that can be understood, addressed, and healed. The key insight that changes everything is recognizing that "procrastination is an effect, not a cause." When you address the underlying causes, the effects naturally begin to shift. The path forward requires both compassion and courage: compassion for the wounded parts of yourself that learned to delay as protection, and courage to take imperfect action despite old fears and resistance patterns. Whether you recognize yourself as a perfectionist, dreamer, worrier, rebel, drama creator, or over-giver, the same fundamental truth applies: you have everything within you necessary for transformation. The goal isn't perfection but progress, not elimination of all delay but conscious choice about when to act and when to pause. Your next step is remarkably simple yet profoundly powerful: choose one area where procrastination no longer serves you and commit to 15 minutes of focused action today. Whether it's making a phone call you've been avoiding, organizing one corner of your cluttered space, or writing one paragraph of a project you've been postponing, let this moment mark the beginning of your recovery. Remember, you're not a procrastinator having a human experience, you're a human being having a procrastination experience that's ready to transform. The time of your life is now o'clock.
By Jeffery Combs
