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Self-Control
Four Easier Tips for Increasing Your Willpower
Traditional advice is too arduous. These tips are easier.
Posted April 4, 2015
Advice on willpower is generally dispensed by people with plenty of it. Of course, what works for them is less likely to work for less driven sorts.
These tips have often helped my clients who struggle with discipline. Perhaps at least one will work for you:
The thermometer. Of course, "Break it into baby steps" is a widely touted tip. Here's a variant I like. You know those billboards for organizations trying to raise money that show a thermometer with the already-raised amount in red and the milestones along the side? How about, for that project you're avoiding, creating a thermometer like that and putting it on your desk or refrigerator? Every time you reach a milestone, color it in.
Get a buddy. Many people don't procrastinate when working for or with someone else. So when you're facing a task you're resisting, do you want to try to team up?
For example, if you have a daunting project at work or school, might you ask someone if s/he'd be willing to do it with you?
Or if you have to do your taxes, should you find a diligent friend who's also doing his or her taxes and one of you bring your laptop and papers to the other's home, so you're both working on it? That might make you embarrassed to fool around. And each of you can help each other when stuck.
Do it the fun way. Sure, maybe the work would be better done a more arduous way but that may feel so onerous that you never get to it. Or you do it last-minute and it comes out crummy. So maybe half a loaf is better than none. For example, let's say you're supposed to issue a report and the best way would be to synthesize mountains of data. Might it be possible to base the report on a few interviews plus just a bit of hard data?
Picture the benefit and liability. Picture the main benefit(s) and main liability of getting it done. For example, if you clean out your basement, you may please your spouse and feel good about yourself. If you don't, it will hang over your head indefinitely, filling you with guilt. Sweeten the pot by giving yourself little rewards for each part of the project you get done---For example, you get to play 15 minutes of a video game for each 15 minutes of basement cleaning
In sum
In candor, these tips can't be expected to turn a long-time procrastinator into a dynamo but they often give a person sufficient drive. Indeed he or she could end up with the work-life balance that most dynamos lack.
