I have little experience with most of these, and I should gain more. Generally I work to improve my motivation, and indirectly have that carry me through. This obviously depends to a great extent on how well you can motivate yourself. I’m not sure this is exactly an anti-akrasia technique, but I would give it somewhat positive ratings.
If curious, my techniques for motivation are very diverse, and examples include reminding myself what is at stake, and recalling motivational ideals and imagery, largely derived from games, movies, and other media. One classic image of mine that was recently useful is that of a character that, if their legs are broken, they will crawl to their objective. John McClane of the Die Hard films somewhat embodies this idea. Useful for adversity and setbacks.
Sometimes I have great motivation for a task but when it comes to the actual execution, hesitation and procrastination persists. Regardless of my motivation, Execution by Default is often what works for me in getting over this, in the situations in which I do. I would give it +7, with a slight variation. The counting does not work well for me as I keep leaving myself a choice at the end of the countdown, whether I will actually follow through. What seems to work is expecting myself to do the task, and watch it from a sort of third-person perspective. Commonly this comes up for intimidating social tasks, and the thoughts are something like “Huh, I’m going to do that. Weird. Oh, here I go”. In this way the decision is somewhat distanced, and I’m hardly even making it: I’m just watching myself make it. Somehow this often works, and if I really expect to see myself do something, at some point my body just starts moving. Gauging the effectiveness is difficult, as sometimes I try to set this system in motion but don’t really put belief/will into it, and can tell I am doing so. From memory this system actually works, which means if I implement it I’m going to actually do it, and the hesitation is moved forward. An advantage might lie in just doing that, through hyperbolic discounting.
The counting does not work well for me as I keep leaving myself a choice at the end of the countdown, whether I will actually follow through. What seems to work is expecting myself to do the task, and watch it from a sort of third-person perspective.
It almost sounds like you’re reviewing two different techniques here: the original Execute by Default and something like PJ Eby’s Just Do It tactic. Or is this a third thing?
I have little experience with most of these, and I should gain more. Generally I work to improve my motivation, and indirectly have that carry me through. This obviously depends to a great extent on how well you can motivate yourself. I’m not sure this is exactly an anti-akrasia technique, but I would give it somewhat positive ratings.
If curious, my techniques for motivation are very diverse, and examples include reminding myself what is at stake, and recalling motivational ideals and imagery, largely derived from games, movies, and other media. One classic image of mine that was recently useful is that of a character that, if their legs are broken, they will crawl to their objective. John McClane of the Die Hard films somewhat embodies this idea. Useful for adversity and setbacks.
Sometimes I have great motivation for a task but when it comes to the actual execution, hesitation and procrastination persists. Regardless of my motivation, Execution by Default is often what works for me in getting over this, in the situations in which I do. I would give it +7, with a slight variation. The counting does not work well for me as I keep leaving myself a choice at the end of the countdown, whether I will actually follow through. What seems to work is expecting myself to do the task, and watch it from a sort of third-person perspective. Commonly this comes up for intimidating social tasks, and the thoughts are something like “Huh, I’m going to do that. Weird. Oh, here I go”. In this way the decision is somewhat distanced, and I’m hardly even making it: I’m just watching myself make it. Somehow this often works, and if I really expect to see myself do something, at some point my body just starts moving. Gauging the effectiveness is difficult, as sometimes I try to set this system in motion but don’t really put belief/will into it, and can tell I am doing so. From memory this system actually works, which means if I implement it I’m going to actually do it, and the hesitation is moved forward. An advantage might lie in just doing that, through hyperbolic discounting.
It almost sounds like you’re reviewing two different techniques here: the original Execute by Default and something like PJ Eby’s Just Do It tactic. Or is this a third thing?
That’s possible, I’m not familiar with Just Do It.