The essence is that many procrastinators are "structured procrastinators," people who, like me, get a lot done as a way of not working on what they should ideally be working on.

I was surprised by how many people think of themselves as procrastinators, but, like me, seem to get a lot done anyway.

Nothing focuses attention like a real deadline. If you are in a field where life and death, or having a job or not having a job, depends on not missing deadlines, you need to learn to manipulate yourself to meet them; often a good way of doing this is teaming up with non-procrastinators.

The fantasy of doing a task perfectly is common with procrastinators; they set the bar for success very high. Then they are afraid to approach it. As the deadline approaches, they must set the bar lower.

Plan your day with an eye to your tendency to procrastinate, and put in safeguards to keep it to a minimum.

While procrastinating is not a flaw, being a structured procrastinator is actually one way of being pretty productive.

Voltaire was a smart cookie.