Procrastination

Procrastination means putting off a difficult, delayable, important task in favor of something easier, quicker, and less anxiety-provoking. It also means delaying vital actions until the performance and result are less than they would have been if done in a timely manner. Similarly, blocking means that we stumble, delay, and panic in response to a demanding responsibility. Blocking typically occurs when we face public scrutiny (as in writing). In this revisionist and sometimes irreverent book, the author takes academic and professional psychologists to task for neglecting a pair of related problems that are often derided but that can be profoundly debilitating for individuals and economically devastating for schools, businesses, and communities.

Derived from the methods of cognitive behaviour therapy, this book shows how to tackle self-defeating thinking and replace it with a problem-solving outlook. It includes advice on becoming assertive and handling criticism constructively.

This is a companion volume to Coping: The Psychology of What Works, which is also edited by Snyder. This second book includes chapters by some of the most well known clinical and health psychologists and covers some of the newest and most provocative topics currently under study in the area of coping. The contributors address the key questions in this literature: Why do some of us learn from hardship and life's stressors? And why do others fail and succumb to depression, anxiety, and even suicide? What are the adaptive patterns and behaviors of those who do well in spite of the obstacles that are thrown their way? The chapters will look at exercise as a way of coping with stress, body imaging, the use of humor, forgiveness, control of hostile thoughts, ethnicity and coping, sexism and coping aging and relationships, constructing a coherent life story, personal spirituality, and personal growth.

In this highly practical guide, Harry Chambers shoots straight from the hip, identifying the root causes of anti-productive behavior, and providing managers with the tools to diagnose problems, head off self-reinforcing patterns, and foster a more cooperative and productive working environment.