World's Finest Anti-Procrastination Tool

That got your attention, huh?

I'd bet that the percentage of people who have issues with procrastination rivals that of those who fear public speaking.

We're talking big numbers here.

So when I tell you that the device featured in this post is the single best tool I have ever come across to mitigate — hey, nothing will cure you short of your final breath, this is merely a temporizing (as it were) measure — your habit of putting things off, well, you had better sit up and go find a different website.

Wait a minute....

But a tool is only as good as the person who uses it.

And so merely dropping $7.31 for this item will not do anything for you.

No, you're going to need the following value-added instructions on how to repurpose this kitchen-centric device for the great world.

1) Set the timer to count down from five minutes.

2) Turn it on.

3) Make sure you can't see the LCD screen.

4) Turn to your dreaded task and begin — shuffle or rearrange papers, take a note or two, skim through the pile, anything to keep you occupied. It's imperative that you say to yourself, "I'm stopping after five minutes, as soon as the timer goes off," then move really fast through your chosen job.

5) More likely than not (hey, I never promised 100% effectiveness, did I?) when the timer goes off you will have forgotten about it and will say to yourself, "I can do another five minutes."

6) Repeat Steps 1-5 above ad infinitum, setting the timer interval longer and longer, until your task is done.

My method employs the bookofjoe Anti-Inertia Wedge Principle™.

Briefly stated (a paper laying out the details has been submitted to Physical Review Letters), this means that starting something is much, much harder than continuing.

Have you ever noticed, for example, that going running or cleaning the house or shaving seem easy to put off but, once started, are generally continued to completion without anything like the Sturm und Drang of beginning?

Me too.

Boy, you so owe me.

But as always, I'll just put it on your tab.

As I noted, $7.31.