For those who spend their working hours attached to a computer, distraction is never more than a few keystrokes away. It's too easy to switch from editing a document to blowing time on the web. In effect, the transaction cost to procrastination has become zero.

The standard prescription for boosting productivity—getting organized—solves an orthogonal problem, and ignoring the ease of procrastination invites failure.

For many of us, the biggest gains in productivity do not come from following a specific methodology for "getting things done." It comes from erecting transaction costs to nonproductive behavior.