The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play

This book, which I bought some months ago,gives explainations and analogies of the reasons we delay and defer against our own interests that are not only rather original, they are perceptive, accurate and cover ground not generally touched on elsewhere. This enlightening and encouraging analysis is followed by various novel psychological and effective practical tools, which logically address and counteract our reasons for procrastination. Using the ideas from the book, I have now completed,or made a good start on,a range of issues and projects at work and at home that I have put off, to my shame, for years, in some instances. I cannot praise this book highly enough and rate it as the most effective and practical self-development book I have ever purchased. Thanks to the Unschedule approach, I am making more constructive use of my leisure time as well. Do yourself a big favour and don't put off buying this book. No, you don't need to think about it, just read the other reviews and get the order in. Tom

The topic of procrastination is a topic issue that affects many and this book can guide and help in understanding and overcoming procrastination to be more productive on a daily basis. The first chapter, Why we procrastinate?, explains well how procrastination can affect self-esteem including critiquing over procrastination and the link between procrastination and fear of failure, where as chapter 2, explains how a person procrastinates, with good lifestyle examples and the steps that can be taken to step out of procrastination. The book follows on with chapter 3, How to talk to yourself, explaining how the language used can affect procrastination habits, with chapter 4 concentrated on how to live a guilt-free life(i.e. Not putting the things off that we want to do without feeling guilty), an issue that can affect those that are busy and have responsibility towards others...), which plays a major part in life and work. Chapter 5, Overcoming blocks to action and chapter6, The unschedule, gives ways of improving procrastination habits and overcoming obstacles that allows procrastination to affect our way of life. Chapter 7, Working in the flow state includes focus and relaxation techniques of viewing exercises and tasks, with chapter 8, fine-tuning your progress, relating to setbacks and failures when attempting to combat procrastination and concentration techniques. The last chapter, The procrastination in your life is an overview of the many topics and issues discussed in the book, and my overall view is that this book can guide and help in understanding and tackling procrastination.

Firstly I would like to say that I not a employee of Neil Fiore or are affliated with any of his businesses, but this is one of the best books I have ever read in the self help genre. I have read many self-help books about procrastination & worry and they always had the same message: 'if you organise yourself better and work harder, you will reach your goals'. But even a 12 year old understands that logic, and many times (as we have seen when we set New Years Resolutions), this way of thinking often leads to frustration and apathy. I really don't want to spoil it for you but what Neil Fiore with this book is turn this conventional logic on it's head - he states that we should learn to fit our work around our leisure time rather than the conventional wisdom of 'grinding at the millstone' and IT WORKS!!!!!!! As I run a business in my spare time, I have sometimes found it hard to focus on what is really important, avoiding my big tasks. What this book shows you is WHY you avoid these tasks and gives simple and more importantly practical advice on how over come your fears of work and for me it's already had an instant effect!!!! A note of caution: some of the tasks like work for 30 minutes and then take a break may not be practical in the office environment but for people that run businesses, oversee projects and creatives will find this right up their street! I don't normally do reviews but I have to say if you want to be more productive and have a better quality of life then do not hesitate to pick this up!!!! You will not regret it!!!

I have always had a major problem with procrastination which has caused endless problems in my years at uni as a student and then in my working life. I have never understood why I have had such a problem but this book explains it in simple terms and gives practical advice which really works. It has reminded me of the advice which a tutor at uni gave me about exam revision.I thought his advice was silly. My method was to wake up in the morning thinking that I would do 16 hours of solid revision. By the end of the day I would have distracted myself many times and I would have achieved about 5 hours of revision. My tutor advised me to revise in the morning and take the afternoon off and then revise in the evening.It seemed like madness. When I tried putting his advice into practise it actually worked. I would revise efficiently in the morning then take the afternoon off and enjoy myself and then I would happily start revising in the evening and manage 3 or 4 hours of revision. So that was about 9 hours of productive revision. This advice got me through my exams. The advice in this book is more geared towards students and the self-employed who have control over the way they work. You wouldn't be able to practise some of the techniques with a boss looking over your shoulder.In spite of this it would be a useful book for any procrastinator. I would also recommend the book 'Getting Things Done'by David Allen which was helpful in getting me organised but the author of 'Getting things Done' admits that he has no technique for overcoming procrastination just a method to make it easier to plan what you need to do and to keep track of it. If you combine the advice from these two books then your life will become far more productive. I am living proof of this.

Fiore has compiled some useful and interesting insights into why people procrastinate. The strategies suggested initially seem obvious and overly simplistic, but they prove surprisingly valuable when actually instituted. I think this book would serve many a procrastinator well in this regard. What may frustrate the more critical-minded reader, however, is Fiore's narrative style. The points and strategies are belaboured. In order to get to the meat of the book, one must wade through endless anecdotes about Fran, Jane, Martha, Frank, Carlos ... Fiore seems to have an abundant supply of former clients whose minutely detailed experiences serve to illustrate each new point the author makes. Instead of concentrating on Fiore's theory, I found myself longing for the book to end. This was a pity. I think the same book over half the length would be a punchy read destined to change many a procrastinator's life. As it stands, the average procrastinator may struggle to get through more than twenty pages.

This is not a covert plug for the book as I was asked for this review under Amazon's new system. Overall I'm quite pleased with the book; I like the emphasis it puts on motivating yourself positively by planning your 'play time' in advance. This makes perfect sense to me and I'm already seeing a difference with my self-discipline. I think that perhaps the book repeats itself / waffles a little bit (that's the only reason I took one star off), but on the whole it's a cheap and really useful book.

I had a problem for decades - and knew it. I'd get there in the end and achieve great results (cum laude and so on), but oh the stress and worry and anxiety and PROCRASTINATION was painful - within myself but also for those around me. I've been to courses and read other books, but reading the NOW HABIT finally enabled me to changed my behaviour - for the better! I like the explanations behind why I procrastinate and real do-able strategies that get me working on those really hard tasks sooner and more easily and later I really enjoy my play totally guilt-free! I'm so glad I bought this book. Now out of Amazon and into my 30 minutes of my really important task (writing a journal article I was scared of) - which I now just START knowing that 30 minutes is doable and that all those 30 minutes will add up in the end - then afterwards I'll reward myself by playing my guitar absolutely guilt free! Bye for now. A much much happier, Julie!

One of the other reviewers mentions that they thought they were suffering with ADHD - they weren't the only one! This book has been a huge help to me. I feel relieved that it's a common problem and happy now that I've finished reading this book (two days!) The book is well written and there were lots of "a ha!" And "lightbulb moments" for me. There were various stories of procrastinators and I recognized that I too behaved the same way. I would recommend this book to anyone caught up in the same awful cycle as I was. Just reading this book has made such a difference and I haven't yet had time to put all the plans in place (Wow! That makes me sound like "Gru" out of "Despicable me" !) This book has given me a conviction that "anything is possible" and I can tell you that wasn't the attitude that I had before I started on this book. I don't often write reviews, but this one was definitely worth the effort!