The Tomorrow Trap

Rating:
Summary: very moving somehow at the same time encouraging
Review: Karen E. Peterson, Ph.D. suffered for years from procrastination. With The Tomorrow Trap: Unlocking the Secrets of the Procrastination-Protection Syndrome, she has written the book she "needed to read 20 years ago--while fighting a never-ending battle with procrastination."

Rather than offer ways in which to change behavior, Peterson focuses on helping readers discover the emotional reasons for their procrastination. Once the underlying problem is resolved, the procrastination often disappears.

Dr. Peterson describes two kinds of procrastination: task-related, and person-related. She emphasizes that procrastination is not laziness. If you are putting off doing "an arduous and unpleasant task," you are probably suffering from task-related procrastination. That's the kind that can be best overcome with a reward system.

"When you start to feel extremely angry, victimized, or helpless," then person-related procrastination is likely the culprit. Dr. Peterson says this type of procrastination "protects" us from dealing with "other issues not yet faced." Understanding that, she says, puts us on the road to recovery.

A psychologist and stress management consultant, Dr. Peterson uses case studies of clients to provide examples of how people can overcome procrastination and lead productive lives. Each chapter has questions that readers can ask themselves to help reveal the hidden emotions that keep them enmeshed in the tomorrow trap. She also provides exercises for freeing oneself from the past.

One chapter discusses compulsive habits, such as uncontrolled overeating, overspending, and workaholism as facets of procrastination. Dr. Peterson explains how those habits are formed and how they may be overcome.

Another chapter lists some medical reasons, such as PMS, ADHD, and SAD, that can lead to procrastination, and what to do about them.

Procrastination creates problems in all aspects of our lives: personal, professional, and spiritual. The Tomorrow Trap provides the incentive and self-help techniques needed to "break free from the procrastination patterns of the past and embrace a new way of living, working and believing."

Rating:
Summary: psychotherapy
Review: The book wasn't horrible, but I think it was geared towards those who are more artistic even though the author says everyone can do what she says. For those people who have deeper issues related to their procrastination I don't think this book will be enough. Some form of therapy should go along with it. For those of us who have dealt with procrastination all of our lives and have seemed to have tried "everything in the book" to stop I didn't find this book to be very helpful.

Rating:
Summary: Didn't help me
Review: This book is primarily focused on trying to determine the underlying cause of procrastination, which the author feels relates to feelings of shame. There is little space given to solving procrastination.

An approach like this might be of interest to some people suffering from procrastination, but I didn't find it useful.

She uses an exercise repeatedly which involves writing with both hands. She says you will get different responses from your dominant and nondominant hands, which is supposed to give you greater insight into your problems. An example:

Dominant Hand
When I think of solitude, I think ____________
When I think of solitude, I feel ____________

Nondominant Hand
When I think of solitude, I think ____________
When I think of solitude, I feel ____________

I think this exercise is unhelpful, and I feel annoyed every time I encounter it in this book.

Rating:
Summary: very moving somehow at the same time encouraging
Review: To my surprise, I quite often ended up with finding myself crying while I was reading this book! I never realised that there exists any relationship between one's feeling of guilt and procrastination. Whilst confirming this relationship, this book made me realised how deep my feeling of guilt was. In a way, through reading it I felt that I made a long long journey from my past to the current time, connecting my subconscious mind. It was rather a moving process. 'Forgive, but never forget' concept really changed my attitude to a very positive direction.

An example of a PhD student helped me a lot as I am also a doctoral student. I realised that all I got to do is just to write about something I have always wanted to write! Thanks to Dr Peterson, I have just submitted my PhD thesis.