8 Must-Read Books on Procrastination

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In a recent article, I told you about the four most important steps I took to overcome severe procrastination.

The first step was to become a learning machine. In the article, I describe how the lifelong learner mindset has played a crucial role in helping me improve many aspects of procrastination, including self-discipline, self-compassion, mindfulness, and emotion regulation.

You are reading: Best books to stop procrastinating

In today’s article, I want to show you the eight books that have helped me the most on my own journey to overcome procrastination.

Without further ado, here are the eight best books on procrastination.

1. the now habit by neil fiore

This is where it all started for me: the first book on procrastination I’ve ever read.

I remember it like it was yesterday. i just moved into a new apartment with jonas and i was struggling like crazy. I had literally zero self-discipline back then. each day was an internal struggle of trying to be productive versus giving in to distractions. the amount of guilt I was experiencing these days was insane.

Afterward, I’m glad I had to go through that period. after all, it is what led me down this path of lifelong learning, personal growth, and becoming the best version of myself.

The Now Habit is an old-school book that makes up for its lack of scientific evidence with counterintuitive strategies like the guilt-free plan, deprogramming, worry work, or 3D thinking.

here are three crucial lessons you will learn from this book:

sacrificing the game doesn’t work. I often fell for this trap. I was always working (I was busy, but not productive) or I felt guilty about not working. fiore’s counterintuitive approach is to prioritize play and commit to it before even thinking about work.
controlling your time is perhaps the easiest way to reduce procrastination and remove much of the blame. associated with it. Forced to keep track of your time, you’ll automatically waste less of it. plus, you feel better about yourself because you realize you’re doing better than you thought.
find ways to reduce fear and create safety. we often put things off things because of unconscious fears, such as fear of success, fear of inadequacy, or fear of failure. By creating security in our lives, we can calm down and be more productive.

2. the steel spring procrastination equation

This is a great book and one of my personal favorites for overcoming procrastination.

That said, I don’t see it as a book on procrastination per se. it’s more about the science of motivation. in fact, piers’s entire approach to procrastination is motivational.

At the center of the book is his motivation equation, which shows precisely why we are motivated to take action or not. If the motivation for an important task is lower than the motivation for distractions (for example, watching TV, playing video games, or eating ice cream), then we procrastinate.

As long as the motivation for other activities is higher than for the activities we postpone, we will postpone things.

here are three other lessons you will learn from this book:

Technology is one of the main drivers of procrastination. We have seen a five-fold increase in procrastination in the last few decades. why? because modern temptations (video games, TV series, smartphones, etc.) are too sexy and we have a hard time resisting them.
fatigue is the number 1 reason given for procrastination. in piers’ own words: “when you’re tired at the end of the day, after your work has gotten the better of you, taking out the trash is the last thing you do. fatigue increases task aversion, reduces interest, and makes the difficult unbearable.”
Be deliberate in creating your environment. In short, you need to purge your environment of everything that induces procrastination and fill it with things that prepare you to do the work.

3. solving the puzzle of procrastination by timothy pychyl

This book is very suitable for procrastinators: it is short and practical.

You can read it in one or two sittings, which is enough to learn some important facts about procrastination. plus, it gives you a good feeling because you’ve really finished something.

here are three important lessons you will learn from this book:

It’s about short-term mood repair. Procrastination occurs when what we want to do makes us feel bad and we end up doing something that makes us feel better. it’s about emotions. and it’s about feeling good.
focus on getting started. I’ve written an entire article on this. the essence of this is that the pain is in the anticipation, not the actual performance of a dreaded task. once we start, good things start to happen; we just need to get past the initial resistance.
your mind is a reason machine. your mind will create all sorts of silly excuses designed to keep you from doing the very things you should be doing . these reasons can be viewed and overridden.

4. get things done by david allen

Have you ever felt like there’s a constant anxiety that never seems to go away? Anxiety about missing out or forgetting something important?

This book will help you master that anxiety.

getting things done, or gtd for short, is about organizing your life so you feel more in control. you just know you have everything covered. you know you have an overview of your life. you know that everything is stored somewhere on your system.

The gtd system will significantly reduce the amount of anxiety and worry you experience on a daily basis.

here are three concepts you will learn in the book:

“mind like water” is the result of being organized and having a system you can trust. as the zen master shunryu suzuki used to say: “if your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; he’s open to anything.”
the two-minute rule. This is easily one of the most powerful rules in the productivity game. And it’s also simple: “If the following action can be done in two minutes or less, do it now.”
Your mind is a great place to have ideas, but a terrible place to handle them. This is perhaps the central teaching of the book. your mind is great at generating ideas, but you need to put them into a reliable system. otherwise you will feel confused and overwhelmed most of the time.

5. self pity by kristin neff

This book was crucial in helping me overcome procrastination for two reasons. First, it released a lot of guilt that I was carrying with me. second, it helped me move from self-criticism to self-pity.

It’s about creating a healthy relationship with yourself. it’s okay to have flaws, make mistakes, and be wrong sometimes. the key in such situations is to react with warmth, understanding, and compassion, not self-loathing, criticism, and mental beatings.

if you’re struggling with guilt and self-criticism, this book will make a world of difference.

here are three things you will learn:

self-compassion trumps self-criticism. self-compassionate people are happier, healthier, have better relationships, feel better about their lives in general, achieve greater financial and professional success , and so on.
Self-forgiveness, rather than self-punishment, reduces procrastination. It’s about creating a place of safety and care, rather than fear. once you are operating from a safe place, you will have less need to procrastinate.
the more self-compassionate you are, the less you will procrastinate. when you genuinely care about yourself, you will want what is best for you, and that’s never procrastinating.

6. the power of now by eckhart tolle

I could have picked any other book on the subject of mindfulness and being present. The Power of Now happens to be one of my favorites and I recommend everyone read it anyway.

The truth is that mindfulness is an absolute game changer for overcoming procrastination. the ability to observe your thoughts and emotions from a distance, remain detached and non-reactive, and operate from a place of calm, safety, and non-judgment makes a world of difference.

here are three things you will learn from this book:

You are not your thoughts. you are the witness behind your thoughts. You are the sky, not the clouds. you are the deep ocean, not the waves on the surface. once you realize that, you start to take your thoughts less seriously, and that helps you beat procrastination.
self-criticism is silly. If you could have done better than you have, you would have. there is no point punishing yourself all the time. at a given moment, you do what is best under the given circumstances.
guilt and self-pity are self-indulgent. It’s about me, me, me. no one cares about your feelings and no one thinks they are that important. get over it, move on and do what you have to do no matter how you feel.

7. the willpower instinct by kelly mcgonigal

At the end of the day, procrastination is a problem of willpower.

We want to get up early, study for exams, go to the gym or do the dishes… but we lack the willpower to do it.

The Willpower Instinct is easily the best book on willpower out there. offers a comprehensive crash course on everything you need to know to develop true self-discipline (and self-discipline is the only thing that will make a difference in the long run).

here are three things you will learn from the book:

Willpower is both physiological and psychological. willpower is not only in your head, it is also in your body. this explains why energy, deep breathing, stress, and other factors are so crucial.
Stress is perhaps the biggest threat to self-control. this explains why we are more likely to procrastinate when under stress; we just don’t have much willpower available.
exercise increases willpower. This resonates with a study I read recently that showed people who exercise regularly procrastinate less.

8. stop procrastinating by nils salzgeber

Without a doubt, the best book on procrastination ever published or ever published is my book, Stop Procrastinating: A Simple Guide to Fight Laziness, Develop Self-Discipline, and Overcome Procrastination.

just kidding.

My book is a mix between science and my personal experiences. As many of you know, I have been struggling with procrastination all my life and have only recently gone through a remarkable transformation. (Read more about this here.)

I have kept the book as short and practical as possible. The last thing I wanted to do was put a 500-page bible in the hands of a procrastinator.

here are three things you will learn:

The only underlying cause of procrastination. Yes, there is only one, and it always comes down to your emotions and the problem of the two selves.
why awareness is a crucial but often neglected ingredient in overcoming procrastination. Hint: The more you become aware of your procrastination tendencies, the better off you’ll be.
A comprehensive tour of the new science of willpower. After all, procrastination comes down to willpower. so the better you master this skill, the less you will struggle with procrastination.

Is there a book missing?

Now I’d love to hear your opinion on those books. have you read any of them? Are some important ones missing?

Let us know in the comments below, and thanks for reading!

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8 Must-Read Books on Procrastination – NJlifehacks