A new book by a York University psychology professor could help even the most ardent procrastinators overcome their barriers, but it is also designed to help everyone plan their lives better and to move towards their full potential.
Procrastinators (and Others) Can Still Get to Heaven: A Guide to Directed Everyday Living is the latest book by Professor Emeritus Clarry Lay, published by the York University Bookstore.
As Lay says in the preface, “The origins of this book began with an interest in helping procrastinators. As the book evolved, a more general system of directed everyday living was developed.”
The goal of the book is to help people to achieve their best in a thoughtful, planned-out manner, rather than a series of happenstances. The inner core of the system involves the person’s goals, their prescribed behaviours and their schedule for enacting these behaviours.
Lay approaches directed living in much the same way an investment advisor would manage a portfolio. In this case, it is an important investment in self.
The book helps people to determine what they ought to be doing to achieve their goals. To identify and critically evaluate what those goals are is an essential first step to figuring out how to “engage in those specific behaviours that will enable you to reach these goals,” says Lay. “This should be a large part of your life … it is the basic premise in directed everyday living.”
In this way, the book is an antidote to rambling from one day to one month to one year without much thought for goals or, as Lay calls it, simply viewing “life as some random accumulation of days.”
Lay discusses competing behaviours, the bottom line, having a diversity of goals, the reasons for procrastination and other forms of delay, how thoughts and emotions can help or hinder, and the advantages of a good schedule. Tips to enable directed everyday living are also considered.
The book was published with the aid of Steven Glassman, director, printing and mailing services, York University Bookstore, including help with editing. The Bookstore also provided the services of a graphic designer to sharpen and refine the successive versions of the original manuscript.
Procrastinators (and Others) Can Still Get to Heaven: A Guide to Directed Everyday Living is available in hard copy or as an ebook. The ebook is free. For more information, visit the York University Bookstore website.