This has to be the most disappointing book I've read this decade, I came away with nothing actionable. It was like reading the advice "just eat less" as a way to loose weight.
If you crave for further disappointing books, I can also recommend "Do the Work" by the same author. Instead of actually doing the work, I read the book, and it hasn't helped me a bit.
It had the opposite effect on me. It's not so much about what is actionable, but a way of seeing. It opened my eyes to an interesting way in approaching my work that I've never thought of before.
I'm not the person you're replying to, but I find The War of Art very relevant, and let me explain how it helped me. The book is about the struggle of doing things that one cares about: writer's block and the like. It puts in very clear (if metaphorical) detail the nature of this inner struggle (what the author calls Resistance), has some description of the many pitfalls, and gives a bunch of tricks for beating it. Mostly, if you find you relate to the description of Resistance in the book, then framing the struggle in the way the author does can be inspirational. I have read the book two times so far, and each time it has helped me for a little while at least — until the demon of Resistance conquers me again. (Maybe the trick is to just read it every few months…)
The key takeaway for me was: you will complete none of the jobs on which you don't work. If you don't feel like getting started, do something anyway. Just do something, no matter how small, and then do another thing. The hard part is getting started: once there is momentum then getting things done follows.
This is like saying "you get to Mars by starting the trip." The advice is sound, but doesn't help with getting off the ground. It's the kind of thing someone who already has little or no trouble starting buys on a poster for their workspace.
