The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
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Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#2Ha! Immediately I thought, "This article seems interesting, I'm going to favorite it to read later!"
Oh, wait...
Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#3"Reduce friction to start" is a huge one for me. Especially if "starting" is a bunch of busywork like writing a Dockerfile, initializing a git repo, creating package metadata files, etc. I've found it helpful to just dive in and start writing the "fun" part first and turn it into a "real" project later. Usually after an hour of coding or less I feel I've created something of value that I want to save and reuse so there's no motivational problem.
Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#4Would recommend the book "War of Art" for those who enjoy reading about this kind of topic.
A short, fun read that names the effect "Resistance".
Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#5Can't fail to link the classic work with nice pictures, explaining apparently the same thing: https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrasti...
(The above is the first in a series of 3 posts, IIRC, including a post on effective beating of procrastination.)
Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#6"All procrastination is delay, but not all delay is procrastination"
Solving the Procrastination Puzzle, was an amazing audio book, where the author mentions that it's short so the audiobook itself does not become a tool of procrastination for the listener. :)
"Just Get Started" (step 1) is something I still tell myself.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18079767-solving-the-pro...
The audiobook is on youtube (not sure if a legal copy), this link skips the 17 min intro. (link in the comments)
Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#7Through years of reading articles about performance and productivity, I had kind of extracted those same conclusions and over time have given those recommendations to people around me with procrastination issues.
However, I had never read a short article that summarized the ideas in such a concise and well written form, very informative but at the same time very easy to read. So a big thank you to the author for this piece. I'll be linking it to several people.
Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#8"Reduce friction to start" is a huge one for me. Especially if "starting" is a bunch of busywork like writing a Dockerfile, initializing a git repo, creating package metadata files, etc. I've found it helpful to just dive in and start writing the "fun" part first and turn it into a "real" project later. Usually after an hour of coding or less I feel I've created something of value that I want to save and reuse so the…
yes, I can relate to this 100%. That's why I have become a huge fan of using Vagrant in (my) tutorials. Just clone and type "vagrant up" and everything is installed and ready to jump right into coding. I love coding, I almost loathe config and admin stuff (especially if installing doesn't work arrr)
Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#9>Time inconsistency refers to the tendency of the human brain to value immediate rewards more highly than future rewards.
To me it seems this sort of reasoning suffers from the homuncular fallacy. Who is placing value on the rewards: are some rewards 'rewarded' more highly than others? What about those rewards, etc.
>When you make plans for yourself — like setting a goal to lose weight or write a book or learn a language — you are actually making plans for your future self.
Yes, you're making a prediction on the basis of imperfect self-knowledge. And that's before even considering creativity, which by definition is unpredictable. So for example booking a plane flight is one thing and writing a novel is another. It isn't merely a matter of blinkered self-control: one has to be distractable to go in new directions.
Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#10Useful things for those in the struggle...
Deep Work, by Cal Newport. An excellent book on how to work on really big ideas/projects effectively, without losing your humanity in the process. This is a must-read for anyone serious about work.
Pomodoro Technique. This is well-documented with lots of apps and tools online, but it's pretty simple. Set a 25 minute timer. Work, without interruption, for 25 minutes. When the timer goes off, do not-work for 5 minutes - exercise, web surf, whatever. When that timer goes off, set another 25. It's nice because it does the boundary stuff this article talks about in a manageable way. It's not "I'm going to work hard all week", but rather "I'm going to work hard for 25 minutes".