Ways to avoid procrastination: I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start.

Both of those papers carry a limitation, and it is a real one rather than a formality. They are theoretical. Neither one measured a single human being. They are models, which is to say arguments about what would follow if people valued time in a particular way, and they are famous because the shape turned out to be useful, not because either paper ever watched anybody fail to start a business.

From chapter 8: Why later always wins

Some rules, because this goes wrong in the same three ways every time. The question has to be answerable. If the person you're writing to cannot reply yes or no to it, you've written a description of your idea and dressed it as a question, which is a thing almost everybody does on the first attempt. Read it back and ask whether a busy person could answer it in one word.

From chapter 10: The unfinished task

That is how the book looks at “ways to avoid procrastination”: one idea at a time, with a step you can take right away. Of course, this is only one idea from the book. So, if this passage speaks to you, the full chapter goes further, and it ends with an exercise you can do the same evening.

In short, the book has 11 chapters, and each one ends with a practical exercise. Therefore, you can read it in order, or you can go straight to the part about “ways to avoid procrastination”.

1. The gap between wanting and doing
2. The three-month window
3. What counts as started
4. The number that keeps moving
5. Preparation and its stop condition
6. The course that never ends
7. The licence you do not need
8. Why later always wins
9. Nobody chooses the day they start
10. The unfinished task
11. Fourteen days

Finally, you can get I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start: Nobody Has Ever Said No to You in the stores below. Because every title of this book shares the same text, you can simply pick the one you like best. Also, the book is available in 19 languages.

In addition, each title below highlights a different idea from the same book.

• I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start: Eleven Exercises, Each One Done in a Single Sitting
• I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start: Why Wanting It More Was Never the Answer
• But I Never Actually Start: Preparing Is Not Progress
• I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start: The Evidence on Plans, Courses, Licences and Waiting
• I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start: What Counts as Started, and How to Get There
• But I Never Actually Start: Eleven Chapters on the Gap Between Wanting and Doing
• I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start: Count the Years, Not the Months
• I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start: The Attempts That Died Took Longer
• Why Do I Never Actually Start?: Preparing Is Not Progress
• I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start: How to Stop Preparing and Find Out

See all 43 titles. Go to the book page.