The Procrastination Equation (33 page)

and debt, 110-11

and environmental issues, 113

and founding fathers (U.S.), 110, 113-14

and passage of bills (U.S.), 110-11, 111

Gracie, Royce, 120

Grand Theft Auto (game), 68

gratification, postponing, 212, 212n.
See also
instant gratification

Green, Christopher, 215

Greene, Robert, 59

grocery shopping, 74, 168-69, 201

guilt, 96, 98, 135, 226n4

Guitar Hero,
68, 125

gummivores, 54

gyms, 23, 170-71, 196, 197, 198

habit.
See
routine/habit

Hamilton, Alexander, 110

handwriting, 4

happiness, 85, 97-99, 197, 202

Happiness(tm)
(Ferguson), 194, 211

health domain, 83, 84, 85.
See also
medical procrastination

Hemingway, Ernest, 188

Herman, Peter, 132

Hesiod, 57-58

hierarchy of needs, 169, 280n16

Hill, Napoleon, 73

Hinduism, 95, 96

Hirschi, Travis, 162

History of the Peloponnesian War
(Thucydides), 58

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The
(Adams), 159n

hobbies, 83, 125, 201

home offices, 182

Homer, 58, 162-64

Hoots, Sara, 222n6

housework.
See
domestic tasks

“How to Gain an Extra Hour Every Day,” 67

Hughes, Howard, 90

Hughes, Matt, 120

Hugo, Victor, 166

human nature, economic model, 27-29

humanistic psychology, 169

Hume, David, 26, 227-28n12

humour, 11

hunter-gatherers, 53

Huxley, Aldous, 78

I Love Lucy, 67

Idiocracy
(film), 56

“If...then” scenarios, 190

Ig Nobel Prize, 77

implementation intentions, 191

impulse spending, 74, 76, 78n, 182

impulsiveness

and age, 33, 162

and animals, 54, 55

biological origin, 45, 46

evolutionary explanation, 53-54

gender comparisons, 56-57

—procrastination connection, 13-14, 25-26, 30, 31, 161-62

teenagers, 49 and time, 30, 36, 37

independent retirement accounts, 107

individualism, 66

indulgences, 152, 154, 212

Industrial-Organizational Psychologists, x, 158n, 268n2

Industrial Revolution, 59-60

insectivores, 54

instant gratification, 13, 48, 49, 55, 74, 93, 98, 161, 162, 173, 177, 192

instinct/reason interplay, 44, 46

“Integrating Theories of Motivation” (Steel), 27n

intention-action gap, 38, 109

intentions, 189-91, 261n17

Internet

blocking access to, 104, 168, 217

and electronic monitoring, 104

online discussion boards, 97-98

online games, 103

rationalizing use, 217-18

time-control software, 167.

See also
e-mail; employees; students

interruption and recovery, 105

intestacy, 90-91

intimacy, 83-84, 98, 201

iPhone, 77, 78

Iraq war, 130

Iron, Mary Jean, 99

irrational delay.
See
procrastination

Irving, Edward, 95n

Islam, 95, 96

James, William, 136n, 230n3

Jefferson, Thomas, 113-14, 257n44

job hunting, 21, 116-17.
See also
career success

job mobility, 158

jobs

ability to perform, 158, 276n41

assessment, 156, 157

database, 158

factory, 66n, 140-41

finding perfect, 155-59

market, 157-58

office, 140

sales, 15-16, 20, 88

Johnson, Samuel, 59-60, 59n

jokes, 11

Joshua Then and Now
(Richler), 172, 177

journalism, deadlines, 88

Judge, Mike, 56

Jupiter, 4

Kabat-Zinn, 284n38

Karlin, Dean, 171

Kaufman, Edgar, 10

Kessler, David, 75

KFC, 76

King, Martin Luther, Jr., 90, 90n

Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind
(Marcus), 54

Koppel, Ted, 11

Kubla Khan
(Coleridge), 80, 81

L'Amour, Louis, 133

labor statistics, 100-1

Law of Attraction, 131

laziness, 2, 38

leadership, 203-10

learned helplessness, 21-22, 225-26n2

learned industriousness, 153

LeechBlock
, 167

Lefebure, Molly, 82

leisure (domain), 83

liar loans, 107

Liberman, Nira, 26

life domains survey, 83-85, 84

limbic system

animals, 47, 50

and brain damage, 46

children, 47

evolution, 45, 231-32n7

and intentionality, 190

and market research, 74-76

role, 44, 73-74

and stimulus control, 178-79

Lincoln, Abraham, 90, 90n

love, 155-56

Loewenstein, George, 29

Lukacs, Georg, 279n11

lung cancer, 92

Mac, Bernie, 98

Madison, James, 110

magical thinking, 131, 131n

Mahabharata
, 95, 96, 249n26

Mail Goggles, 167

managers, 102, 143-44, 206

Manichaeism, 93-94

ManicTime
(software), 188

Marcus, Gary, 54n

Mark Antony, 59

market research, 74-77

marmosets, 54

marriage, 155

martial arts, 120-21, 123, 125

Martinez, Mark, 175

Maslow, Abraham, 169

massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), 154-55

Matching Law, 29-30

materialism, 74.
See also
consumerism

Mating Mind, The
(Miller), 56

maturity, 12, 144

Mazur, James, 51-52

MBAs, 143-44

McGregor, Ewan, 168

medical procrastination, 23, 91-93, 196

MeeTimer
, 167

Melville, Herman, 166

mental accounting, 288n54

mental contrasting, 129-30

Mercury, 4

Mesla, David, 76

meta-analysis, x-xi

Microsoft, 104, 105

Microsoft Outlook, 178

military overconfidence, 130

Millan, Cesar, 52, 237n32

Miller, Geoffrey, 56

mindfulness meditation, 284n38

mini-goals, 187

Mischel, Walter, 173, 174-75, 177, 212n

Moby-Dick
(Melville), 166

Mocniak, Michael, 87, 142

Modern Times
(film), 140

modernization, 66-67, 212-13

Monteverde, Miguel, 103

Moon, Keith, 90

mortgages, 107

motivation

* beliefs/expectancy, 117

chain, 143-44

fixed interval schedule, 65, 66

fixed ratio schedule, 66n

* optimism, 118-19, 119

variable reinforcement, 65, 65, 66

motivational psychology, 65

movie stars, 67

movies

development, 67

inspirational, 127

multi-tasking, 105

Musashi, Miyamoto, 175

MySpace, 71

NATO, 256n36

“Nature of Procrastination, The” (Steel), xi, 86

negative self-talk, 126

neglect, 57

networking, 73.
See also
social networking sites

neurobiology.
See
brain; limbic system; prefrontal cortex

New Thought Movement, 131

New York Times, The
, 71, 105

New Year’s resolutions, 132

New Yorker, The
, 11

Nichomachean Ethics
, 58

Nineteen Eighty-Four
(Orwell), 33

Nobel Prize, 101, 113

O*NET program, 158

O'Donoghue, Ted, 29

Obama, Barack, 114-15, 144

obesity, 216

occupations, 11-12, 223n6

Odyssey, The
(Homer), 162-64, 164, 165, 167, 171

Oettingen, Gabriele, 128, 129

Offer, Avner, 78, 252n23

Office Space
, 140

Office, The
(TV), 140

On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
(Zinsser), 34

Opera Solutions, 177

optimal foraging, 54

optimism, 21-22, 21n, 117-19, 119, 205, 265n28

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 100

organizational team procrastination, 102-5, 103

Orwell, George, 33

Outward Bound, 121-22

Overcoming Procrastination
(Ellis), 239n44

overconfidence, 21, 130-32, 137, 138

overeating, 93, 212-13

overoptimism, 117-18

overregulation, 211

Owen, Owen, 55

packaging, 74

Pali Canon, 59, 95

Panglossian thinking, 130-31, 282n31

paperwork, 142

parental controls, 168, 217

parenting, 47-50, 83, 84, 122-23

Parker, Dorothy, 11

partnering, 153-54

patience, 3, 44, 47, 48, 52, 55

pay day advances, 107

Peale, Norman Vincent, 131, 246n27

perfectionism, 12-13

performance

documenting, 124, 125

and flextime, 207-8

mental re-creations.
See
mental contrasting

peak hours, 148-49, 150

and perfectionism, 13

rituals of, 189-90

and switching attention, 105

persistence, 14, 121, 155

“Person from Porlock” excuse, 81, 82

personal digital assistants (PDAs), 77-78, 104, 133

personal trainers, 134, 180, 190, 191

pessimism, 20, 118, 121, 126, 131, 132-33

pets, 47, 50, 52

PhD Comics
, 87

PhDs, 86-87

piece-rate systems, 140, 269n3

Pillars of Islam, The
, 95

Pinsky, Robert, 82

Piozzi, Hester, 59n

planning, biological origin, 44

planning fallacy, 118

pleasurable vs. unpleasant tasks.
See
value

pleasure, biological origin, 44

political activism, 83

political procrastination, 58-59, 109-14

Polivy, Janet, 132

polymorphic procrastination, 102-5, 103

Ponak, Allen, 251n14

pop-ups, 178

Popular Science
, 67

porn sites, 103-4, 171, 251n14

positive psychology movement, 21-22

positive self-statements, 120, 126, 259n7

Postman, Neil, 78

poverty, in retirement, 108

Powell, Felix, 259n7

Power of Positive Thinking, The
(Peale), 131

powerlessness, 8, 134-37.
See also
learned helplessness

praise, 204, 207, 210

precommitment, 165-172, 200, 202-3, 217, 278n6

predation, 53, 54

predictability, 181

prefrontal cortex

animals, 50-51

evolution, 231-32n7

and exhaustion, 47

and impulse control, 49-50, 52

and market research, 75, 76

maturation, 47-50

role, 73-74

pregnancy, 55-57

pride, 206

Principles of Psychology
(James), 136n

procrastination

biological basis, 40, 43-57

cluster pattern, 83

defined, 3-4, 53

economic cost, 58, 100-15, 250n3

history, 57-60

hours, 101-2

* impulsiveness connection, 13-14, 25-26, 30, 31, 161-62

life domains survey, 83-85, 84

log, 137

misdiagnosis, xii

pattern, 7-9

personal price, 80-99

quiz, 4-6

reasons for, 7, 15-17, 38.
See also
excuses

statistics, 57, 100-1

top goal, 11

ubiquity, 214, 215

“Procrastination” (fan page), 73

Procrastination Assessment Scale—Students, 23, 23n

Procrastination Equation, 15-40

elements, 27-31, 31n

time/motivation graph, 37, 39

work pace graph, 39, 40

Procrastination Support (group), 97

Procrastination Through the Ages: A Definitive History
, 239n44

Procrastinator’s Handbook
(Emmett), 97

procrastinators—profile, 4, 25, 40

demographics, 11-12

psychological, 12-14.
See also

    self-assessment quiz

productive procrastination, 151-52, 180

professional organizers, 180, 190

projection bias, 278n8

promiscuity, 46, 49, 56, 93, 94, 213

prudence, 3

psychophysics, 269n6

Pugh, Emerson, 43

Quimby, Phineas, 131

Quincey, Thomas de, 81

Rabin, Matthew, 29

rachet effect, 269n3

rage, 213

Rahl, Colonel, 111-12

Rambler, The
(periodical), 59

Ramsey, Gordon, 127

reading, 69-70

realistic optimism

success spirals, 120-25, 123n

vicarious victory, 125-28

wish fulfillment, 128-30

reality principle, 131

acknowledging powerlessness, 134-37

healthy pessimism, 132-34

reflection, 213

registered savings plans, 108

registration, late, 169-70

regret, 98-99, 165

rejection, 15, 20, 116

relevancy, 4, 143, 144, 184-85

religious procrastination, 93-96

remote control, 69

repetitive motion disorder, 77

reproduction, 55-57

RescueTime
(software), 188, 217

Research in Motion, 77

retirement savings plans, 107-9, 106n

rewards

biological origin, 44

and expectancy, 27-28

timing, 24-25.
See also
instant gratification

Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 59n

Richler, Mordecai, 172

Rime of the Ancient Mariner
(Coleridge), 80

Ringenbach, Paul T., 239n44

Risk (board game), 63

risk-taking behavior, 49

role models, 126, 205

Romalis, John, 171

romance domain, 83

Ross, Harold, 11

routine/habit, 76-77, 188-91