Interpreting Procrastination; Key to Success, Happiness and Wellness

By Wasif Haq

Procrastination has been viewed negatively. We are told to beat and defeat procrastination, when in reality, procrastination is a natural and actually quite useful phenomena. Procrastination needs to be interpreted as it may contain valuable messages for us, following which we can achieve success and explore our real potential. In the book 'Interpreting Procrastination; Key to Success, Happiness and Wellness', it is argued that procrastination is a symptom rather than a cause and that if we understand the hidden messages encrypted in procrastination, our productivity can increase. The book also covers latest research data to highlight how the brain responds under different conditions and importantly how stress can cause brain damage which may result in cognitive difficulties including procrastination.

If you want to understand yourself, your needs and how different factors may impact your learning and attention, 'Interpreting Procrastination; Key to Success, Happiness and Wellness' is a must read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781365648717

Book preview

Interpreting Procrastination; Key to Success, Happiness and Wellness

Interpreting Procrastination; Key to Success, Happiness and Wellness

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Interpreting Procrastination; Key to Success, Happiness and Wellness.

1st edition

Copyright © 2017 Lulu Press

ISBN: 978-1-365-64871-7

Catalogue

Labryinths of life (2012)      Borrowed from rainbow (2013)   Dental home care (2014)

Stories & glories from Pakistan & Australia (2015)        The whispers of the falling rain (2016)

Preface

The idea for the book came when I was attending a boring workshop. Isn’t it fascinating that we have been blessed with the power to procrastinate, to daydream, to let our bird of imagination fly and explore new ideas? The general structure and topics of the book were completed within 5-10 minutes of the time my procrastination kicked in.

All my life, before writing this book, I have been against procrastination like most of the published stuff focusses on beating and defeating procrastination. My question is that procrastination is a natural phenomenon. Why would we want to beat and defeat something that can actually be quite helpful to us as human beings in identifying where our interests lie, in helping us thinking out of the box and getting in touch with things going in our mind and life. In fact procrastination was highly valued in ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian cultures.

‘Listen to your heart when he’s calling for you’

(Lyrics from Roxette song ‘Listen to your heart’)

What about the voice of our mind? Is procrastination the very voice of our mind that needs to be interpreted carefully instead of us trying our best to silence this voice (procrastination) and push ourselves to complete the task?

Influences:

There have been a lot of influences which convinced and encouraged me to write the book. One of the books that has influenced this writing is ‘The lazy way to success’ by Fred Gratzon, a hilarious yet mind blowing book.  My favorite piece from the book is the story behind Alexander Fleming's discovery of Penicillin. Previously at least 17 different references in the scientific literature to a mold of some sort destroying the culture in bacteriological experiments had been made, but all the 17 scientists thought that they had failed and threw out their 'bad experiments' and started over. It was Fleming who thought that if the bacteria can be wiped under experimental conditions, they can be eliminated inside the body. Penicillin has since then saved up to 200 million human lives. Interestingly Fleming returned from holidays when he found that all the bacteria had been killed.

Slow Movement has also influenced my work on procrastination. Over a period of time, I have learnt to slow down and connect more to the inner self and to the nature. Subsequently the rush and hassles of modern day life certainly slowed down after following the concepts from Slow Movement.

A funny, short story published in Jang Newspaper in Pakistan, written by Mubashir Ali Zaidi; writer and journalist about the rabbit and the turtle just gave me new eyes to look at the story. I have been a great fan of Aesop’s fables and love reading them from time to time. His story of the rabbit and the turtle or the hare and the tortoise competing in the race is famous across many cultures. Presented below is the funny updated version of the story written by Mubashir Ali Zaidi.

Image may contain: 1 person, text

Courtesy: 100 Lafzon ki Kahani (Facebook page).

For non-Urdu readers, presented below is the translation:

A story of 100 words : Turtle by Mubashir Ali Zaidi

Once upon a time there was a turtle and a rabbit. Both participated in 100 meters race in Olympics. The turtle had a brick phone (Nokia 3310) while the rabbit had a smart phone with 4 G connection. As soon as the race started, the rabbit took his selfie with his phone. Then he updated the status on Facebook and started the Twitter trend. Next he uploaded the video of the spectators on Youtube. In all this time, the turtle had already reached the finish line and won the race. The turtle was presented with a smart phone for winning the race. Ever since that day, the turtle has never won any race again.

Format of the book:

Obviously I loved this funny remix version of the story and thought to use the reference of the rabbit and the turtle in this book as well. Regarding the format of the book, before every chapter, there is a picture of a happy rabbit with some funny and positive quotes about procrastination. The purpose of the book is to view procrastination from a pair of new eyes and these quotes can help us view procrastination as a misunderstood phenomenon which in reality carries important messages for us.

When I started writing the book, I did not want to make it into a scientific thesis or a research article, but in the times we live, people want to know the evidence behind different things especially if it’s a concept which mainstream does not seem to agree with. Chapter 5 particularly became a neuroscience chapter but I have tried my best to keep the language simple for everyone to understand. I have also tried my best, not to use abbreviations in chapter 5 to prevent confusion about different regions of the brain. Finally I have used few examples from my own personal life of how procrastination was influencing my life.

The PDF version of the book which is available on coolbluez.com contains index so if you are interested in finding and reading information about some specific topic, I would recommend looking at the PDF version.

The programs used for the illustrations in the book are Art Explosion 3000 and Picto-Selector. I would like to pay special thanks to Martijn van der Kooij, who developed Picto-Selector program, a free program containing visuals to help children with disabilities and communication difficulties. It is a valuable asset and a remarkable contribution from Martijn to assist children with additional needs.

Hope you enjoy the book and feel free to procrastinate along the way. After all the best learning is the one in which we can apply the newly learnt knowledge straightaway.

Title and cover picture of the book:

Choosing the title has been a difficult job (procrastination in action). It was not until the book was assigned ISBN that finally this title was chosen out of 15+ demo titles. Some of the demo titles included ‘The wise rabbit who procrastinated’, ‘The perks of procrastination’ and ‘Unleashing your potential with procrastination’.

It was clear from the start that the cover picture would focus the procrastinating rabbit and the slow and steady turtle. The cover picture of the book was purchased from iStock as it perfectly reflects the content of the book.

Wasif Haq

1.1.2017

coolbluez.com

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Abdul Sattar Edhi (1928-2016). May his soul rest in peace. Amin.

Edhi holds the Guinness world record of providing largest voluntary ambulance service. On average, his organization takes 6,000 calls every day and deliver services in approximately 10 minutes. The organization runs because of the charity and donations by people in and out of Pakistan. He has received many national and international awards and holds an honorary doctorate degree awarded by University of Bedfordshire and Institute of Business Administration, Karachi. Image Courtesy: Anum J. Cheema

When you help someone and guide them truly, you live forever in the hearts and lives of those people, even you may be miles apart but your presence & essence lives forever with them- Wasif Haq

Chapter 1: The calling of our comfort zone