I think most plans like this fail because people have limited willpower. It only takes one willpower failure for you to break your rules and have them become less meaningful. That’s why I recommend explicitly identifying “safe” break activities to engage in when you have limited willpower. (At first, doing your “safe” break activities will feel like work ’cause you’re making yourself choose them, but over time they will feel like fun like they’re supposed to feel like.) To preserve your attention span, you can require yourself to wait 1 minute before switching from work activities to break activities, and choose break activities that aren’t addictive variable reinforcers (e.g. checking the reddit homepage is a terrible break activity). Laughter is supposed to counter ego depletion, so The Daily Show and other funny TV shows could be good. (TV is also long-form, so it won’t kill your attention span the way clicking around the internet might.)
Lately I’ve been checking variable reinforcers like Less Wrong once per day in the evening (any time after 11 PM), with a one-minute delay first. (I also let myself read Less Wrong at other times, but I only make intentional visits, e.g. it’s OK to search the LW archive for something and also click something else that looks interesting, but no visiting just to see what’s up, except after 11 PM.) This is working better than anything else I’ve tried… I do want to know what’s happening on Less Wrong, but I don’t want to have it as an option to interrupt whatever I might be concentrating on at any time.
You might find this post of mine a useful framework for self-experimentation along these lines. IMO, a steady stream of experimental tweaks to policies you have laid out for yourself works better an inspired day of self-improvement every few months.
Thanks for the 1 minute hack, brilliant idea. Could have been the stopper for me being here right now (I’m here because the tab was open, so I figured I could take a look)
I’ll read the post at midnight, seems great.
But most importantly, Harvard’s Shawn Achor deals extensively with willpower in his “happiness advantage” book. I do recommend strongly that people think that (as a matter of experimental fact) they have, for all things, just one candle of willpower. If you try too much at the same time, it burns out and you are doomed in many dimensions. Which is why there is a good rate for building new habits, which are set aside from the category of “demanding willpower” to “I already do this, this is part of me”.
I think most plans like this fail because people have limited willpower. It only takes one willpower failure for you to break your rules and have them become less meaningful. That’s why I recommend explicitly identifying “safe” break activities to engage in when you have limited willpower. (At first, doing your “safe” break activities will feel like work ’cause you’re making yourself choose them, but over time they will feel like fun like they’re supposed to feel like.) To preserve your attention span, you can require yourself to wait 1 minute before switching from work activities to break activities, and choose break activities that aren’t addictive variable reinforcers (e.g. checking the reddit homepage is a terrible break activity). Laughter is supposed to counter ego depletion, so The Daily Show and other funny TV shows could be good. (TV is also long-form, so it won’t kill your attention span the way clicking around the internet might.)
Lately I’ve been checking variable reinforcers like Less Wrong once per day in the evening (any time after 11 PM), with a one-minute delay first. (I also let myself read Less Wrong at other times, but I only make intentional visits, e.g. it’s OK to search the LW archive for something and also click something else that looks interesting, but no visiting just to see what’s up, except after 11 PM.) This is working better than anything else I’ve tried… I do want to know what’s happening on Less Wrong, but I don’t want to have it as an option to interrupt whatever I might be concentrating on at any time.
You might find this post of mine a useful framework for self-experimentation along these lines. IMO, a steady stream of experimental tweaks to policies you have laid out for yourself works better an inspired day of self-improvement every few months.
Thanks for the 1 minute hack, brilliant idea. Could have been the stopper for me being here right now (I’m here because the tab was open, so I figured I could take a look) I’ll read the post at midnight, seems great.
But most importantly, Harvard’s Shawn Achor deals extensively with willpower in his “happiness advantage” book. I do recommend strongly that people think that (as a matter of experimental fact) they have, for all things, just one candle of willpower. If you try too much at the same time, it burns out and you are doomed in many dimensions. Which is why there is a good rate for building new habits, which are set aside from the category of “demanding willpower” to “I already do this, this is part of me”.