The Complete Idiot's Guide to Overcoming Procrastination

Rating:
Summary: Worth the Wait
Review: 'The Complete Idiot's Guide to Overcoming Procrastination' is a well written, sensible self-help manual with lots of great advice. That's what my friend Tom Cruise wrote in a letter to me dated November 12 1999. He eventually got around to posting it six months later and I finally read it during the Christmas break of 2001. Anyway, I bought the book at the start of 2003 and was going to read it last week but something happened so I decided to put it off till next month... or the month after. But I'll definitely have it finished by the end of next year. I hope so anyway.

Rating:
Summary: Intellectual Honesty + Elegant Suggestions = Potent Change!
Review: After having given this book a thorough read, I have found it to be the most thoughtful and intellectually honest book I have ever read on the subject. This is because, instead of treating the problem of procrastination as a simple problem, deserving only a facile prescription to "make it all better," Dr. Tullier treats it as the mult-faceted, nuanced and often insidious problem that it can become--and pulls no punches in stating how serious it can be! In the process, she considers it as not only a psychological or self-management problem, but as one that can affect all too many areas of one's life balance.

And her solutions are sincere, and not always easy, but elegant in their practical application. Her emphasis on organizing one's environment would seem so obvious, but as a person who suffers all too much from being disorganized, it has opened my eyes wide to see how it is inextricably connected to my procrastinating!

I have used her "Stop. Look. Listen." formula and "Ten Surefire Strategies" several times now, and I am already finding that my ability to take actions immediately without hesitation or excuses has greatly increased.

This wide treatment of the subject makes it the best book on the subject for virtually anybody wanting to end this bad set of habits, in my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: Intellectual Honesty + Elegant Suggestions = Potent Change!
Review: After having given this book a thorough read, I have found it to be the most thoughtful and intellectually honest book I have ever read on the subject. This is because, instead of treating the problem of procrastination as a simple problem, deserving only a facile prescription to "make it all better," Dr. Tullier treats it as the mult-faceted, nuanced and often insidious problem that it can become--and pulls no punches in stating how serious it can be! In the process, she considers it as not only a psychological or self-management problem, but as one that can affect all too many areas of one's life balance.

And her solutions are sincere, and not always easy, but elegant in their practical application. Her emphasis on organizing one's environment would seem so obvious, but as a person who suffers all too much from being disorganized, it has opened my eyes wide to see how it is inextricably connected to my procrastinating!

I have used her "Stop. Look. Listen." formula and "Ten Surefire Strategies" several times now, and I am already finding that my ability to take actions immediately without hesitation or excuses has greatly increased.

This wide treatment of the subject makes it the best book on the subject for virtually anybody wanting to end this bad set of habits, in my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: very superficial
Review: I have read quite a few books on procrastination. Although one book in particular, "The Now Habit" by Neil Fiore, has been extremely helpful, I know I could do even better still. I had high hopes for this book. It was long (and therefore, I had hoped, detailed), and after all, it's for complete idiots. This book, however is the most superficial book on procrastination I have ever read. Whenever a new section is started, the author goes into long generalizations about different situations in which one might procrastinate. (Note to author: We all know the definition of procrastination. We don't need you to talk about how hard it is to remember to send thank-you notes to Aunt Helga and to not ignore those pesky dishes that never get done.)

You have to wade through *so* much verbiage to get to anything useful. Every once in a while, you come across a nice sentence or two, but they're all inscribed for you in the "procrastinator's cheat sheet" in the front. The sheet is better than the entirety of the rest of the book because the sheet has just as much useful material and it only takes a few minutes to read.

All in all, there's nothing useful here that isn't found in even the worse procrastination books. In fact, this book is so useless that I'm seriously considering returning it. Good books to get instead are Fiore's "The Now Habit" and Steve Chandlers' "17 Lies You Tell Yourself and the Truth That Will Set You Free."

Rating:
Summary: very superficial
Review: I have read quite a few books on procrastination. Although one book in particular, "The Now Habit" by Neil Fiore, has been extremely helpful, I know I could do even better still. I had high hopes for this book. It was long (and therefore, I had hoped, detailed), and after all, it's for complete idiots. This book, however is the most superficial book on procrastination I have ever read. Whenever a new section is started, the author goes into long generalizations about different situations in which one might procrastinate. (Note to author: We all know the definition of procrastination. We don't need you to talk about how hard it is to remember to send thank-you notes to Aunt Helga and to not ignore those pesky dishes that never get done.)

You have to wade through *so* much verbiage to get to anything useful. Every once in a while, you come across a nice sentence or two, but they're all inscribed for you in the "procrastinator's cheat sheet" in the front. The sheet is better than the entirety of the rest of the book because the sheet has just as much useful material and it only takes a few minutes to read.

All in all, there's nothing useful here that isn't found in even the worse procrastination books. In fact, this book is so useless that I'm seriously considering returning it. Good books to get instead are Fiore's "The Now Habit" and Steve Chandlers' "17 Lies You Tell Yourself and the Truth That Will Set You Free."