Productivity

Getting Things Done

Willpower notes

  • “ego-depletion” - history from the Victorian era
  • willpower is like a muscle, can be depleted
  • relies on glucose, can be “refueled”
  • only one kind of willpower, people who held emotions in during movie more likely to snack afterwards, people who resisted snacking do more poorly on difficult puzzles
  • willpower - a muscle that can be trained, by doing many small and frequent exercises, like
    • not swearing
    • speaking in complete sentences (or always saying yes and no, not yeah)
    • correcting posture
  • when willpower (and glucose level) low
    • hard to make a decision
    • often revert to “easiest/safest” decision
    • time-horizon shortens, more likely to choose immediate gain
    • everything “intensified”, feelings, cravings, etc
  • tricks
    • postponing pleasures instead of denying them entirely (if you feel like a chocolate, say “I will eat it in half an hour”, and see if you still want it
      • in an experiment, people who postponed a snack later ate less in total than the people who ate it immediately
    • learning habits (see Duffig book)
      • people with a lot of willpower use it to establish habits that are automatic, and that avoid depleting willpower
    • changing routines and pre-commitment to avoid temptation
  • procrastination
    • detailed todo-lists with next actionable item (GTD)
    • removing the option to do something else - a set amount of time per day where you either have to work on your thesis, or not do anything
  • tracking, quantified self, weighing yourself every day, word count, etc. measuring and tracking, visualizing
  • If-then chain (very clear rules), if there are french fries at the buffet, I'm not going to take it
  • Clear lines - I will never do something - easy to track (but might make you crave stuff much more than postponing)
  • Writing down clear next steps - ending the “monkey chatter”… unfinished tasks really affect your mental space, but with written down clear next-steps, your subconscious “goes quiet”

Habits

  • habits consist of cue, action, reward
  • cues can be
    • immediately preceding action
    • time
    • location
    • mood?ou
  • try to write down when you have a craving, etc, the possible cues, and “self-research” over time what your triggering cue is
  • also experiment with what the reward is, if you eat chocolate at 4PM every day, it might be because you need a break, fresh air, socializing, or more energy.
  • trick is to identify the cue, change the action, and keep the reward
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