This is not a book for Bill Gates. Or Hillary Clinton, or Steven Spielberg. Clearly they have no trouble getting stuff done. For the great majority of us, though, what a comfort to discover that weÕre not wastrels and slackers, but doers . . . in our own way. It may sound counterintuitive, but according to philosopher John Perry, you can accomplish a lot by putting things off. He calls it Òstructured procrastinationÓ:In 1995, while not working on some project I should have been working on, I began to feel rotten about myself. But then I noticed something. On the whole, I had a reputation as a person who got a lot done and made a reasonable contribution. . . . A paradox. Rather than getting to work on my important projects, I began to think about this conundrum. I realized thatI was what I call a structured procrastinator: a person who gets a lot done by not doing other things.Celebrating a nearly universal character flaw, The Art of Procrastination is a wise, charming, compulsively readable bookÑreally, a tongue-in-cheek argument of ideas. Perry offers ingenious strategies, like the defensive to-do list (Ò1. Learn Chinese . . .Ó) and task triage. He discusses the double-edged relationship between the computer and procrastinationÑon the one hand, it allows the procrastinator to fire off a letter or paper at the last possible minute; on the other, itÕs a dangerous time suck (Perry counters this by never surfing until heÕs already hungry for lunch). Or what may be procrastinationÕs greatest gift: the chance to accomplish surprising, wonderful things by not sticking to a rigid schedule. For example, Perry wrote this book by avoiding the work he was supposed to be doingÑgrading papers and evaluating dissertation ideas. How lucky for us.