End Procrastination Now! (2 page)

2. Build tolerance and stamina to tough your way through uncomfortable circumstances (the emotive way).

3. Decide on your direction, behaviorally follow through, and apply what you know to prosper through your work and accomplishments (the behavioral way).

In this book, Bill Knaus demonstrates the rare ability to simplify the complex procrastination process and to provide clear, easy-to-follow steps to learn self-regulation. By following his suggestions,
you will learn to be in charge of your life and to restore feelings of strength and purpose. As the Scottish proverb states, “What may be done at any time will be done at no time.” Don't put this off! End procrastination now by reading and applying the wisdom in this book.

Jon Carlson, Psy.D., Ed.D., ABPP

Distinguished Professor

Division of Psychology and Counseling

Governors State University

I dedicate this book to the memory of Albert Ellis, Ph.D., the founder of rational emotive behavioral therapy, whose tireless work and passionate pursuit of psychological ways to better people's lives is beyond inspiring.

I'd like to acknowledge the following people for reviewing chapters or contributing ideas to this book: Giulio Bortolozzo; Rina Cohen, Esq.; George Elias, Ed.D.; Edward Garcia, MA; Jon Geis, Ph.D.; Robert Foerster; John Hazen; Nancy Knaus, Ph.D.; Robert Knaus, Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering; William Knaus II, MD; Kate Mehuron, Ph.D.; Diane Nadeau; Vince Parr, Ph.D.; Will Ross; Michael Stacey, Ed.D.; Richard Wessler, Ph.D.; and William Wagner.

End Procrastination Now!
is an Albert Ellis Tribute Series Book dedicated to the memory of the famous psychologist and pioneer of rational-emotive-behavioral therapy. The tribute series advisory board members follow:

GENERAL EDITORS: Bill Knaus
, Ed.D., Founder of Rational Emotive Education; Former Director of Training, Institute for Advanced Study in Rational Emotive Therapy. Author of seminal work on
procrastination.
Jon Carlson
, Psy.D., Ed.D., ABPP Distinguished Professor, Governors State University; Proponent of Adlerian psychotherapy.
Elliot D. Cohen
, Ph.D., Professor, Indian River State College; Adjunct Professor, Florida State University College of Medicine; Founder, Logic-Based Therapy.

TRIBUTE BOOK EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Irwin Altrows
, Ph.D., Associate Fellow and Training Faculty, REBT; Adjunct Assistant Professor (Psychiatry) and Clinical Supervisor (Psychology), Queens University.
Guy Azoula
, Ph.D., French representative for Rational Emotive Education. Supervisor, REBT; Teacher at the French cognitive behavior association.
Aaron T. Beck
, M.D., University Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania; President, Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research.
Judith S. Beck
, Ph.D., Director, Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research; Clinical Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania; Founding Fellow and Former President of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy.
Joel Block
, Ph.D., ABPP, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Einstein College of Medicine; Author of books on improving relationships.
Walter Block
, Ph.D., The Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in Economics at Loyola University; Author of a dozen books and over 200 scholarly articles.
Giulo Bortolozzo
, M.S., Australian representative for Rational Emotive Education; Author of
People and Emotions
and
Have a Go Spaghettio!
Chuck Carins
, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Linguistics, City College, New York.
Nick Cummings
, Ph.D., Former President, American Psychological Association; President, Cummings Foundation.
Rene F.W. Diekstra
, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Roosevelt Academy International Honors College, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Rev. Thomas A. Downes
, Ph.D., Long Island College Hospital Chaplain; Master Chaplain, Academy of Certified Chaplains.
Michael R. Edelstein
, Ph.D., Fellow and Supervisor, REBT; Author of
Three-Minute Therapy
and
Stage Fright
; Past President of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy.
Debbie Joffe Ellis
, Lic. Psychologist (Australia); Lic. Mental Health Counselor (New York); REBT Fellow, Supervisor,
and Presenter; Wife of Albert Ellis. Private practice, New York City.
David Ellis
, JD., Intellectual Property and Patent Attorney; Former Adjunct Professor, University of Florida and Stetson University.
Susan Ellis
, Ph.D., Licensed psychologist; Certified Family Mediator; Author of
Make Sense of Your Dreams
and
Make Sense of Your Feelings
.
Frank Farley
, Ph.D., Former President, American Psychological Association; H. Carnell Professor at Temple University.
Pam Garcey
, Ph.D., Adjunct Psychology Professor, Argosy University-Dallas; Clinical Supervisor, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Edward Garcia
, MA., Former Director of Training, Institute for Advanced Study in Rational Emotive Therapy; Coauthor of
Building Emotional Muscle
and
Homer the Homely Hound Dog
.
H. Jon Geis
, Ph.D., Original Director of Training, Institute for Advanced Study in Rational Emotive Therapy; Taught at New York University, Columbia University, and Yeshiva University.
Joe Gerstein
, MD., Founding President, SMART Recovery Self-Help Network; Harvard Medical School (retired).
Russ Greiger
, Ph.D., REBT Supervisor; Adjunct Professor at the University of Virginia; Six books and over 50 professional papers and chapters on REBT.
Nancy Haberstroh
, MBA, Ph.D., Primary U.S. representative of Rational Emotive Education; Director of Psychological Services, Monson Developmental Center.
Steven C. Hayes
, Ph.D., Foundation Professor of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno.
Howard Kassinove
, Ph.D., ABPP, Professor of Psychology and Director, Institute for the Study and Treatment of Anger and Aggression at Hofstra University.
Tony Kidman
, Ph.D., Director of the Health Psychology Unit, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. Member of the Order of Australia.
Sam Klarreich
, Ph.D., President, The Berkeley Centre for Effectiveness, Toronto, Canada.
Gerald Koocher
, Ph.D., ABPP, Former President, American Psychological Association; Dean and Professor, School of Health and Sciences, Simmons College.
Paul Kurtz
, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo; Founding President, Center for Inquiry; Author of 50 books.
Arnie Lazarus
, Ph.D., ABPP, Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University; Founder, Multimodal Psychotherapy.
Barry Lubetkin
, Ph.D., Founding Copresident Behavioral Therapy Center, New York;
Author of books on resolving marital and social anxieties.
John Minor
, Ph.D., Associate Fellow and training faculty, REBT; Adjunct Professor, University of California.
John C. Norcross
, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology & Distinguished University Fellow, University of Scranton.
Christine A. Padesky
, Ph.D., Distinguished Founding Fellow, Academy of Cognitive Therapy; Cofounder, Center for Cognitive Therapy; Author of best-selling
Mind Over Mood
.
Vince Parr
, Ph.D., President, Rational Living Foundation, Tampa, FL.
Leon Pomeroy
, Ph.D., Adjunct Faculty, George Mason University; President of The Robert S. Hartman Institute; Author of
The New Science of Axiological Psychology
.
Aldo R. Pucci
, Psy.D., President, National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists.
Roberta Richardson
, Ph.D., Vice-Chair of Association of REBT, U.K.
Will Ross
, Webmaster, REBTnetwork.org; Long-term voluntary practice in the application of REBT on suicide prevention hotlines.
Gayle Rosellini
, MS., Specialist in 501-c-3, private, nonprofit agencies; Treatment of addictions and criminality; Author “Of Course You're Angry.”
Nosheen Kahn Rahman
, Ph.D., Professor/Director of Centre for Clinical Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
Richard S. Schneiman
, Ph.D., Codirector Intermountain Center for REBT, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Sanjay Singh
, MD, DNB, Ph.D., REBT and REE Representative in India; Associate Professor, Department of Dermatology, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.
Deborah Steinberg
, MSW, Fellow and Supervisor, REBT; Child specialty: character development and moral education; Author of
How to Stick with a Diet
.
Thomas Szasz
, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York.
Danny Wedding
, Ph.D., MPH, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Missouri-Columbia; Director, Missouri Institute of Mental Health.
Richard Wessler
, Ph.D., Former Director of Training, Institute for Advanced Study of Rational Emotive Therapy; Professor Emeritus, Pace University; Cofounder, Cognitive Appraisal Therapy.
Janet L. Wolfe
, Ph.D., Former Executive Director, Albert Ellis Institute; Adjunct Professor, New York University; Private practice, New York City.

Do you want to accomplish more in life? Do your procrastination habits get in the way of your doing so? If your answer to these questions is yes, in
End Procrastination Now!
you'll learn how to take charge of your life as you watch procrastination fade in your rearview mirror.

If you want to end your membership in the procrastinator's club, what are you up against? Procrastination is among the most pervasive, tenacious, and complex of personal challenges. For many, it's a conundrum. Like other problem habits, however, it has vulnerabilities. You'll learn to exploit those vulnerabilities by using powerful awareness and action approaches in which you work against procrastination from the inside out.

If you want to cut through procrastination, you've already started—you are reading this book. The next step is to employ the unique three-pronged approach that I'll show you here, use these ideas, and apply the exercises to the challenge of breaking free from procrastination.

In
End Procrastination Now!
, I'll be with you all the way to share ideas about how to follow through on what you believe is important to do. You'll learn how to end procrastination by following a
do-it-now
path. On this path, you do reasonable things in a reasonable way within a reasonable time to improve your health, happiness, and a deserved sense of accomplishment. But first, let's go over some general concepts about procrastination. This information will put in context some of the things that I'll be discussing in the chapters ahead.

Did you know that the Latin origin of the word
procrastination
is
pro
(forward) plus
crastinus
(belonging to tomorrow)? However, procrastination is much more than postponing something, and the concept isn't as simple as many people think. Here's my definition:
procrastination is an automatic problem habit of putting off an important and timely activity until another time. It's a process that has probable consequences.

This common human condition involves a negative perception about an anticipated activity, always involves an urge to diverge by substituting something less relevant, and is practically always accompanied by procrastination thinking, such as, “I'll do this later when I feel ready.” More than a simple act of avoidance, procrastination involves a process of interconnected perceptions and thoughts (the cognitive component), emotions and sensations (the emotive component), and actions (the behavioral component). Procrastination is far more complex than a simple behavioral problem.

From a minor “later is better” procrastination seed can grow a bigger problem habit. A procrastination decision to delay brings immediate relief and hope. These feelings of relief and hope reinforce the procrastination decision, making other procrastination decisions more likely in the future. Following that, you can make
excuses to justify the delay or ask for an extension for yet another day. Procrastination can include intricate patterns of delay.

Let's look at an example: Jane's struggle with procrastination over a written analysis of her organization's quarterly financial results. After weeks of delay, Jane decided to finish the report over the weekend. After Sunday lunch, she was ready to start, and she walked sluggishly to her computer, wincing at the thought of writing. The following sequence of events occurred:

1. As Jane sat down to get started on her report, she heard the call of her lawn's long grass, which needed mowing.

2. Jane walked toward the mower, pulled the cord, and heard it come to life.

3. She felt relief as she thought she'd get the report done after raking the grass clippings. By concentrating on the mowing, she put aside the nagging reminder in the back of her mind that she felt in her gut.

4. As she finished mowing, Jane noticed her neighbor sipping lemonade by her pool and walked over to chitchat.

5. After catching up on things with her neighbor, Jane returned home to cook dinner.

6. After a filling meal, she went to take a nap. She said to herself, “I'll start later, when I feel alert.”