I think there’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem when you’re not much of an agent yet, and you haven’t accomplished anything interesting under your own steam, so it doesn’t really even seem worthwhile to plan anything out. (Another failure mode: it does seem worthwhile to plan things out, but only because you haven’t yet noticed that you rarely work on any of your plans.) Probably it makes sense to debug what’s making you ineffective and build up a track record before tackling anything really big (see success spirals).
If you’re one of those people who makes plans but never works on them, it might be a good idea to start being very distrustful of yourself whenever you say you’re going to do something. Concrete example: Maybe there’s some topic you’ve been intending to study for a while. If you were distrustful of yourself, instead of just continuing to intend to study it, you might block out some time during your week, then set up reminders on your cell phone, rules for when you can skip your study period, rules for when you’re allowed to abandon the project entirely, etc.
The problem with these behavior regulation devices is that building them takes a large activation energy. Here are my solutions for this so far:
Jot down ideas for a device whenever you have them, even if you aren’t going to implement them immediately.
Wait until you’re in an especially energetic or inspired mood, then take advantage of it and implement a few devices (or debug ones that failed).
Have the devices come in to effect a while after you’ve finished building them (ex: build your device in the evening and have it activate the next morning).
Consume stimulants like coffee or kratom.
In my experience, after using such devices for a while I no longer needed them as much.
Of course, there are other components to being an agent, e.g. fearlessness. The modern world is pretty safe, but evolution calibrated us for a world that was much more dangerous, especially with regard to social blunders.
I think there’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem when you’re not much of an agent yet, and you haven’t accomplished anything interesting under your own steam, so it doesn’t really even seem worthwhile to plan anything out. (Another failure mode: it does seem worthwhile to plan things out, but only because you haven’t yet noticed that you rarely work on any of your plans.) Probably it makes sense to debug what’s making you ineffective and build up a track record before tackling anything really big (see success spirals).
If you’re one of those people who makes plans but never works on them, it might be a good idea to start being very distrustful of yourself whenever you say you’re going to do something. Concrete example: Maybe there’s some topic you’ve been intending to study for a while. If you were distrustful of yourself, instead of just continuing to intend to study it, you might block out some time during your week, then set up reminders on your cell phone, rules for when you can skip your study period, rules for when you’re allowed to abandon the project entirely, etc.
The problem with these behavior regulation devices is that building them takes a large activation energy. Here are my solutions for this so far:
Jot down ideas for a device whenever you have them, even if you aren’t going to implement them immediately.
Wait until you’re in an especially energetic or inspired mood, then take advantage of it and implement a few devices (or debug ones that failed).
Have the devices come in to effect a while after you’ve finished building them (ex: build your device in the evening and have it activate the next morning).
Consume stimulants like coffee or kratom.
In my experience, after using such devices for a while I no longer needed them as much.
Of course, there are other components to being an agent, e.g. fearlessness. The modern world is pretty safe, but evolution calibrated us for a world that was much more dangerous, especially with regard to social blunders.