Finally, a book that might help me stay focused on writing better headlines
At a downtown Toronto Starbucks, people dawdle in every imaginable manner: an older couple read the newspaper, a teenage girl uses her cellphone to change her Facebook status, a group of friends sit long after their drinks have been cleared.
"Coffee shops have been a serious enabler ever since caffeine was first poured into a glass," says Dr. Piers Steel, a professor at the University of Calgary's Haskayne School of Business who spent 10 years studying the science of dillydallying, which he examines in his new book, The Procrastination Equation.
"Look around, procrastination is our natural default, it's who we are. We're living at a time when there's a virtual strip club, casino and game room at our fingertips, and it's keeping us away from our goals."
Steel describes his introduction to procrastination in romantic terms. "I dated a lot of other topics, but when I found this, it was like finding my first love," says the 41-year-old father of two, who calls his research "me-search," and annotates his motivational self-help book with 70 pages of notes. "The book contains a lot of hard-won lessons I've learned from my own life. For me, the topic's a lot like that old Hair Club for Men ad: I'm not only the president, I'm also a client."
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