How can we get willpower back once it has been depleted?
scienceandreligiontoday.com
How can we get willpower back once it has been depleted?
1–10 of 27 posts
Re: How can we get willpower back once it has been depleted?
#2TL;DR: Sleep/rest well, exercise, possibly avoid caffeine, try to put yourself in a good mood.
Re: How can we get willpower back once it has been depleted?
#3Article forgot to mention amphetamine.
Re: How can we get willpower back once it has been depleted?
#4blessed potion of willpower
Re: How can we get willpower back once it has been depleted?
#5Here is a pertinent wikipedia article with some links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion
It's interesting how this applies to more trivial things, like trying to keep yourself from laughing.
Would it be a stretch to say that this supports the idea that we should automate as much of our lives as possible? If I don't have to decide to put a certain amount of my paycheck in savings every time I get it, and it happens automatically, I could potentially reserve that energy for another decision-based task.
Re: How can we get willpower back once it has been depleted?
#6Article forgot to mention amphetamine.
I am actually interested in the eventuality of caffeine (which they did mention) causing adrenal depletion. Those findings would apply even more violently to a more violent stimulant such as amphetamine.
I agree with their idea that one can get a spurt of willpower (and brainpower in general, in my experience) from a stimulant but the crash can be debilitating.
Re: How can we get willpower back once it has been depleted?
#7"A good deal of willfulness must be inborn, because it's common to see families where one sibling has much more of it than another. Circumstances can alter it, but at the high end of the scale, nature seems to be more important than nurture. Bad circumstances can break the spirit of a strong-willed person, but I don't think there's much you can do to make a weak-willed person stronger-willed." - http://www.paulgraham.com/determination.html
Re: How can we get willpower back once it has been depleted?
#8Did my mother write this article?
"Sleep well, eat your vegetables, and work hard!!!"
Re: How can we get willpower back once it has been depleted?
#9TL;DR: Sleep/rest well, exercise, possibly avoid caffeine, try to put yourself in a good mood.
Caffeine: "improves our willpower for some things, such as concentrating on a boring and detailed task, but it has no effect or actually impairs our willpower for other things, such as being polite under trying circumstances."
Sounds good enough to me and probably most coders... I can continue to stick to my 5-8-mugs-a-day habit of 13 years then. My willpower hasn't suffered much I think, although it's hard to tell without some experimental withdrawal period.
Re: How can we get willpower back once it has been depleted?
#10Here is a pertinent wikipedia article with some links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion It's interesting how this applies to more trivial things, like trying to keep yourself from laughing. Would it be a stretch to say that this supports the idea that we should automate as much of our lives as possible? If I don't have to decide to put a certain amount of my paycheck in savings every time I get it, and it h…
Not a stretch at all-I have become massively more productive since automating the simple things in my life, not because it saved any amount of time (maybe 45 mins/day), but because it saved so much of my mental energy.
Even getting a GPS made me more productive at work, because figuring out directions is mentally exhausting for me.
Willpower is also directly linked to glucose. I tried eating more low glycemic index foods and eating somewhat sugary stuff when I was mentally exhausted, and it has worked wonders.