Quote
“Procrastination is not the cause of our problems with accomplishing tasks; it is an attempt to resolve a variety of underlying issues.”— Neil Fiore, in The Now Habit (1988) · The Now Habit →
Why it was said
Neil Fiore, a psychologist who worked with graduate students stuck on their dissertations, writes this in the opening chapters of The Now Habit. It is his case against the usual diagnosis of laziness and the usual prescription of more discipline.
What it actually means
People put off the task not because they do not care but because the task has become the place where fear lives: of failing, of being judged, of finishing and finding it was not good enough. Delay relieves that fear for an afternoon, which is why it repeats. Fiore's sentence reframes procrastination as a symptom with a function, and the treatment follows: make starting safe, schedule the rest first, and shrink the task to thirty minutes.
How to use it
- 1When you catch yourself avoiding a task, write what it would mean about you if it went badly; that is the underlying issue.
- 2Commit to thirty minutes of starting, not to finishing, and schedule the guilt-free break before it.