The Procrastination Equation

Three of the ideas you’ll keep

The Clif summary of The Procrastination Equation pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first three.

1. Procrastination is voluntarily delaying an intended action despite expecting to be worse off for it. That built-in irrationality is why it isn't the same as laziness. Lazy people don't care; procrastinators care and stall anyway.
2. Steel's Temporal Motivation Theory reduces the whole problem to one formula: Motivation = (Expectancy × Value) ÷ (Impulsiveness × Delay). Motivation collapses when the top shrinks or the bottom grows, so every fix targets one of four dials.
3. Of the four variables, Steel's research points to impulsiveness as the strongest single predictor of who procrastinates. It's why the same distant deadline paralyzes an impulsive person and barely fazes a self-disciplined one.

The other 4 — and the full 11-minute summary — are in the app.

What’s inside: 9 chapters

The whole summary runs about 11 minutes, read or listened to.

1. The Procrastination Epidemic
2. Why Procrastination Isn't Laziness
3. The Equation That Explains It All
4. Expectancy: The Confidence Problem
5. Value: The Boredom and Dread Problem
6. Impulsiveness and Delay: The Real Culprits
7. The Ancient Brain Behind the Delay
8. Rebuilding Expectancy and Value
9. Beating Impulsiveness with Precommitment