The shorter version of that long post
If I wait any longer to have the time to write this post "properly," it will never get done. So, instead of the mythical well-thought-out post, you are getting Phnee's Lame Attempt At Explaining Complex Concepts. ;)
This goes back to the iProcrastinate podcasts to which I've been listening. There's been a lot of discussion of willpower and what it is and what it means and how it can be used. It's all been quite enlightening for me, because up until now I'd never really paused to consider what will and willpower really are. Sure, I had a fuzzy notion of the words, and I figured that willpower wasn't really my thing, because, well, just look at my track record. :P
Pychyl has made a convincing case for willpower not being merely an internal resource of self-discipline. This is how we tend to think of it. However, this is not the case. Actually, I think I'm getting ahead of myself. Willpower is in part an internal resource of self-discipline, but it's better to think of it as a muscle than a finite pool which we are constantly draining and then need to wait for it to refill.
Willpower can be built up, much like a muscle. It's not an infinite resource, but one can add to it. Pychyl points out that many factors affect willpower: stress, lack of sleep, the time of day, and most importantly how much our willpower has already been taxed in a given day. If we've been exercising our willpower at work all day (trying to keep our cool so as not to blow up at our idiot coworker, ignoring the snack machine that's right there in the hallway, forcing ourselves to concentrate on a really boring report), then by the end of the day our willpower will be pretty much expended. Getting home and then thinking "Okay, now I should really go to the gym and work out and not sit in front of the TV with a beer" is less likely to produce the desired effect, because we're tired and our willpower has run out.
Pychyl points out that studies have shown that simply reaffirming one's values can have a beneficial effect. Reminding yourself that "I am dedicated to improving my physical health, and going to the gym will get me to my goal!" can sometimes be enough to get you out the door. (Not always, but it helps!)
The other notion he introduced (I'm summing up a bunch of different podcasts here, bear with me) is the one of extended will and distributed willpower. Screw it, I'll quote an article from his blog. Link is here.
The gist of the notion of extended will is that human rationality is heavily scaffolded. That is, our environment works to support our actions or to hinder them. As Heath and Anderson write in their chapter, "People are able to get on because they ‘offload' an enormous amount of practical reasoning onto their environment" (p. 233). As an example they note that "The most common form of offloading that we perform is to transfer segments of our working memory onto the environment. We write things down" (p. 235).
This made a great deal of sense to me. I've mentioned before that I've been having increasing problems with my memory, so I've been using as many tools as I can manage to cope with the problem. I write things down, I set reminders in my phone, I use sticky notes and the white board at home and my agenda to keep me on track. I write extensive notes at work, too, to keep me on top of things. So the idea that willpower could be analogous to memory was a bit of a revelation. Could there be tools to help me when my own tiny pool of willpower ran dry?
The key thing is that willpower is not simply an internal process, and we need to keep this in focus in order to be more strategic and successful.
There are a number of strategies one can implement in order not only to bolster willpower, but to bypass it entirely in order to perform the task.
1- We can reframe aversive tasks so they seem less repulsive, thereby minimizing our desire to procrastinate. (For instance, turning chores into a game)
2- We can create implementation intentions to help us manage our goals. "When X happens, I will do Y." (For instance: "When I walk in the front door in the evening, I will immediately take the dog for a walk instead of taking off my coat and boots.")
3- We can break down a task into smaller, more manageable ones. (Instead of doing ALL the dishes at once, I will first wash only the pans, then only the plates, then only the glasses, etc.)
4- We can use tools in our environment as a physical cue to get us moving, like putting our alarm clock on the other side of the room in the morning to force ourselves out of bed (if we have trouble getting up on time).
In fact, as Heath and Anderson write, "Getting things done becomes then a decided nonmentalistic matter of turning amorphous responsibilities into a much less intimidating pile of ‘widgets to be cranked'" (p. 249)
The idea, basically, is to take the decision-making out of the process. It's not "I now must decide whether to do this," it's the automatic process of "X just happened so now I must do Y and won't bother thinking about it."
The way I understand it, it's creating new sets of automatic habits, so that I can preserve my willpower for other, more important things in life. I'm going to be working on this for the next while, seeing where I can set up the kind of psychological scaffolding that will end up making my life a little more manageable.
I hope that made sense. :)
This goes back to the iProcrastinate podcasts to which I've been listening. There's been a lot of discussion of willpower and what it is and what it means and how it can be used. It's all been quite enlightening for me, because up until now I'd never really paused to consider what will and willpower really are. Sure, I had a fuzzy notion of the words, and I figured that willpower wasn't really my thing, because, well, just look at my track record. :P
Pychyl has made a convincing case for willpower not being merely an internal resource of self-discipline. This is how we tend to think of it. However, this is not the case. Actually, I think I'm getting ahead of myself. Willpower is in part an internal resource of self-discipline, but it's better to think of it as a muscle than a finite pool which we are constantly draining and then need to wait for it to refill.
Willpower can be built up, much like a muscle. It's not an infinite resource, but one can add to it. Pychyl points out that many factors affect willpower: stress, lack of sleep, the time of day, and most importantly how much our willpower has already been taxed in a given day. If we've been exercising our willpower at work all day (trying to keep our cool so as not to blow up at our idiot coworker, ignoring the snack machine that's right there in the hallway, forcing ourselves to concentrate on a really boring report), then by the end of the day our willpower will be pretty much expended. Getting home and then thinking "Okay, now I should really go to the gym and work out and not sit in front of the TV with a beer" is less likely to produce the desired effect, because we're tired and our willpower has run out.
Pychyl points out that studies have shown that simply reaffirming one's values can have a beneficial effect. Reminding yourself that "I am dedicated to improving my physical health, and going to the gym will get me to my goal!" can sometimes be enough to get you out the door. (Not always, but it helps!)
The other notion he introduced (I'm summing up a bunch of different podcasts here, bear with me) is the one of extended will and distributed willpower. Screw it, I'll quote an article from his blog. Link is here.
The gist of the notion of extended will is that human rationality is heavily scaffolded. That is, our environment works to support our actions or to hinder them. As Heath and Anderson write in their chapter, "People are able to get on because they ‘offload' an enormous amount of practical reasoning onto their environment" (p. 233). As an example they note that "The most common form of offloading that we perform is to transfer segments of our working memory onto the environment. We write things down" (p. 235).
This made a great deal of sense to me. I've mentioned before that I've been having increasing problems with my memory, so I've been using as many tools as I can manage to cope with the problem. I write things down, I set reminders in my phone, I use sticky notes and the white board at home and my agenda to keep me on track. I write extensive notes at work, too, to keep me on top of things. So the idea that willpower could be analogous to memory was a bit of a revelation. Could there be tools to help me when my own tiny pool of willpower ran dry?
The key thing is that willpower is not simply an internal process, and we need to keep this in focus in order to be more strategic and successful.
There are a number of strategies one can implement in order not only to bolster willpower, but to bypass it entirely in order to perform the task.
1- We can reframe aversive tasks so they seem less repulsive, thereby minimizing our desire to procrastinate. (For instance, turning chores into a game)
2- We can create implementation intentions to help us manage our goals. "When X happens, I will do Y." (For instance: "When I walk in the front door in the evening, I will immediately take the dog for a walk instead of taking off my coat and boots.")
3- We can break down a task into smaller, more manageable ones. (Instead of doing ALL the dishes at once, I will first wash only the pans, then only the plates, then only the glasses, etc.)
4- We can use tools in our environment as a physical cue to get us moving, like putting our alarm clock on the other side of the room in the morning to force ourselves out of bed (if we have trouble getting up on time).
In fact, as Heath and Anderson write, "Getting things done becomes then a decided nonmentalistic matter of turning amorphous responsibilities into a much less intimidating pile of ‘widgets to be cranked'" (p. 249)
The idea, basically, is to take the decision-making out of the process. It's not "I now must decide whether to do this," it's the automatic process of "X just happened so now I must do Y and won't bother thinking about it."
The way I understand it, it's creating new sets of automatic habits, so that I can preserve my willpower for other, more important things in life. I'm going to be working on this for the next while, seeing where I can set up the kind of psychological scaffolding that will end up making my life a little more manageable.
I hope that made sense. :)