The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
Did you know that Victor Hugo used to write naked just so he wouldn’t be tempted to leave the house and get distracted?
I didn’t know either, but apparently that was his last resort after procrastinating for six months on The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. He finished two weeks before the publisher’s deadline.
Look at this guy, would you guess that he ever procrastinates?
Of course not. He looks badass as hell.
But even he couldn’t resist the distraction of every day life. This chore, that chore, this friend to see, that party to host. It’s not hard to fill the day with tiny little things.
Much like it took me 3 youtube videos, 2 naps, and 1 hour of HackerNews and Twitter to write the first paragraph of this post. Started at 11pm, wrote the 2nd paragraph at 1:30am.
James Clear wrote a great article about procrastination titled The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do.
According to James, procrastination is such an old problem that even Socrates and Aristotle had a term for it: Akrasia. It’s what prevents you from following through on what you set out to do.
The issue, it seems, is that when we make plans, we think of our future selves. Future you is the one who wants to be rich and famous and successful and have infinite freedom and to have run a successful business or three and to have written books and spent plenty of time with friends and family.
Current you is kinda tired though and would love nothing more than to eat chips, watch a light comedy on Netflix, and fall asleep on the couch because the bed is too far. The future is great and all, but doing stuff now better feel good now.
That’s really the key to James’s tips for beating procrastination: take away the tough decisions and align long-term goals with immediate gratification. According to James, the 3 low-hanging fruit to get around akrasia are:
- Use commitment devices that make it easier to do The Right Thing (tm)
- Reduce the friction of starting
- Make specific plans
I’ve tried all of those before and it really does help. The only problem is applying them consistently. Seems like so much work when I could just watch another YouTube video and then another and another …
Read James Clear’s full article, it’s really good.
Got opinions? Write me an email (swizec@swizec.com) or tweet me (@swizec). I promise to read it.
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PS: the Victor Hugo anecdote is well grounded in reality according to this well researched article