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Becoming a Better Procrastinator 🐢
"Since you can't do everything, you have to choose what to neglect — and the best procrastinators do this on purpose." Burkeman reframes procrastination not as a failure of will, but as the inevitable shape of a finite life.
Today's Plan
- ☕ Catch up & popcorn20 min
- 🐢 Chapter summary10 min
- 💬 Discussion questions25 min
- 🌱 One take-away each5 min
1 · Catch Up ☕
First 20 minutes
Before we get into the chapter, let's land together. Fire up the popcorn picker and share whatever feels right:
- How was your week — actually?
- What's something you've been putting off (proudly or guiltily)?
- One thing you're glad about right now.
2 · Chapter Summary 🐢
10 minutes
A walk through Chapter 4 — Burkeman's three principles for better procrastination: pay yourself first, limit your work in progress, and resist middling priorities. Plus the Buffett "twenty-five things" exercise.
3 · Discussion Questions 💬
25 minutes
Pick the ones that feel interesting — no need to go in order.
- Burkeman says you're already procrastinating on something every minute, because you can't do everything. What are you procrastinating on right now? Is it the right thing to be skipping?
- The three principles — pay yourself first, limit work in progress, resist middling priorities — which is hardest for you?
- "Pay yourself first": what's the work or activity that you most want time for, but which always gets bumped? What stops you from putting it first?
- The Warren Buffett exercise: list your top 25 goals, circle the top 5, and avoid the other 20 at all costs — because they're attractive enough to drain you but not important enough to matter. What's on your 6–25 list?
- Where in your life are you keeping too many things "in progress" because you can't bear to fully commit or fully drop?
- What's one project or goal you should officially abandon — not "pause," not "someday," actually let go of?
- How do you tell the difference between procrastination that's avoidance and procrastination that's wisdom?
4 · One Take-Away 🌱
Last 5 minutes
Around the group, one sentence each:
- One thing you're taking with you from today.
- One thing you'll deliberately neglect this week — and one thing you'll pay yourself first on.
Notes from the session
Filled in after we meet