Now, steady on. Workaholism is only an ugly word, it’s a completely fine way of life, isn’t it?
The site 99U just turned this up: it’s a 2007 piece by a designer about advice gleaned from The Now Habit by Neil Fiore. I feel like I’m quoting someone quoting someone quoting someone’s book but while I think about it, this is what’s intrigued me:
I’m a very very bad person. Why? Because I procrastinate. I put things off, leave them to the last minute, or simply never finish them. To beat these lazy habits, I’m reluctantly reading Neil Fiore’s The Now Habit. I still haven’t finished it after three months, but I have hope. (I have 40 pages left.)
According to Neil Fiore and 30 years of research, procrastination isn’t the result of laziness. Rather, procrastination is a symptom, a way of coping with deep psychological self-criticism and fear. It’s because we’re taught to believe that working is good and playing is bad. To reverse this unhealthy model, Neil proposes a tool: the Unschedule.
The Unschedule looks like a normal schedule, but with a twist. Instead of scheduling work you have to do, you fill in everything you want to do.
Read the full piece to see how you can leave out work parts of your diary and add in things you want to do instead – yet still get things done. The book The Now Habit is available on Amazon. You’re not shocked, I can tell.