Procrastination, Motivation and You

By Kevin Bucknall

I, the author, spent time working in the United Nations but my career was mainly in the academic area. This book is the product of many years spent teaching in universities in three countries. At the freshman level (first year) I encountered many students who had problems settling down to university life and motivating themselves to work in the much freer environment. They brought their troubles to me and over the years I learned a lot about what worried them, especially their inability to get down to work and avoid wasting their time. Listening to their concerns, giving support and advice and helping them to make the necessary adjustments provided much of the raw material for this book.
This self-improvement book was written with students in mind although anyone can benefit from it. The first section totally applies to students and non-students alike.
In order to help you develop and raise your level of motivation the book starts by focussing on what can cause procrastination and why it is bad. This is sensible because identifying what is currently stopping a person from feeling good about themselves, enjoying what is being done and working with enthusiasm is the start. Once someone understands why they feel unenthusiastic and what is holding them back then they are in a better position to start tackling their own particular impediments.
The second section turns to motivation, first examining the different ways that a person can benefit from being motivated and enthusiastic in general. The section contains specific advice on what can be done to increase your enthusiasm and develop your motivation. Some of this advice is specific to a student environment, for example, using a failed assignment to increase motivation, but much of the advice is of a general nature and applies to anyone.
The section suggests many practical ways of promoting motivation. It examines the use of various different "carrots" that can encourage your enthusiasm to work. It then turns to a variety of "sticks" that you can use.
After discussing the use of carrots and sticks, other ways of improving your motivation are suggested. For example, these can include such things as visual reminders, like wall posters, and making precommitments in life. For students, amongst other suggestions, finding a study-buddy is recommended and various learning games that you and they can play are explained.
Over twenty further recommendations are made that can help improve your motivation and lead you to success.
The book contains 17,120 words.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kevin Bucknall
• Release date: Jul 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9780956182340

Kevin Bucknall

I have worked at London University, Griffith University (Australia) and with the United Nations in Bangkok. I have lived in a variety of countries, including Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the UK. Recently I spend much of my time writing about motivation and study skills and also making videos about Chinese and Japanese culture. I also "entertain" the neighbours by practising the clarinet in order to keep my place as the lowliest clarinet player in the Da Capo concert band in London.

Book preview

Procrastination, Motivation and You

by Kevin Bucknall

Published by Kevin Bucknall at Smashwords

Copyright 2014 by Kevin Bucknall

ISBN 978-0-9561823-4-0

License Notes. This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. No reproduction without permission. All rights reserved.

My thanks go to Sieska Cowdrey for work on the cover design and to Frits Ahlefeldt-Laurvig of hikingartist.com http://hikingartist.com/ for the use of the cover cartoon.

I wrote this book primarily for students but there are many of you who might also benefit. If you are not a student you might find that some parts of the book do not exactly fit your situation. My advice is to pick and choose what you want, selecting the useful parts that best meet your needs. My interest in motivation came from my many years teaching university students, especially the first year (freshmen) some of whom had difficulties settling in. I advised them about their problems. I am a doctor but I confess not a medical doctor. I trained as an economist, not I suspect the most popular of professions in the minds of many people, received a BSc(Econ) from the London School of Economics and later obtained a Ph.D. from the Australian National University in Canberra.

Disclaimer!

Now for the legal bit. I have made every effort to ensure that the information and advice in this book was correct at press time, but I do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by accident, or any other cause. This book is not intended as a substitute for the medical advice of physicians. Before starting any mental or physical exercise program I implore you to consult a medical practitioner for a check up, just in case. This is particularly so with respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention. My advice here also applies before you start on a new diet, especially any of the new fashionable and faddy ones, which I believe are conceived somewhat irresponsibly and sold enthusiastically. In my view some of them are undesirable or even downright dangerous. So now you know.

Dedication

I wish to thank all those students over all those years who came seeking help and in so doing showing me what their particular problems were. I hope I managed to assist them as much as their information helped me.

This book is dedicated to all my past students even those who did not have problems or at least did not confide them to me.

Contents

Section 1 Procrastination and You

Why is procrastination bad?

Why people procrastinate

Are you a procrastinator?

Section 2 Motivation and You

What other reasons are there for increasing your motivation?

Motivation varies a lot between individuals

The main ways you can work on your motivation

1. Developing a good personal and psychological mind set

The two main approaches to improvement: carrots and sticks

A. The carrots as part of your mind set

List while I woo thee

Would a job be an invasion of your privacy?

Families are like fudge - mostly sweet but with a few nuts

Self-improvement, self-hypnosis

May your God be with you

B. The sticks as part of your mind set

If you sit still long enough you might get a dead-end

Oh, the shame of it all!

I've got to get out of this place

My kingdom for a horse - or other goodies

Burning your bridges might help

2. You know where you can stick it

3. Gamesmanship: winning matters - it's why they keep score

Game 1

Game 2

Game 3

Game 4

Game 5

4. Other things that you can do.

More books by Kevin Bucknall

Free books and articles for download

Section 1 Procrastination and You

Procrastination means putting something off until later. It refers to the task that you have to do, or should do, but you do not feel like doing right now. The old joke Why bother today with what can conveniently be put off until tomorrow is a fair summary of procrastination. In the world we live in it is common to put things off. None of us enjoys starting to do something we do not like and the mind is really adept at coming up with reasons for not doing something. In many cases it suggests that almost anything else would be a better idea: have a cup of coffee, watch TV, phone a friend, check my email.... there seems to be a virtually unlimited set of ideas that the mind can create as a