
The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do - ingve
http://jamesclear.com/akrasia
======
TeMPOraL
Folks at LessWrong did quite a lot of discussion and research on the topic. I
recommend going there for some in-depth, science-based reading:

\- lesswrong.com/lw/3w3/how_to_beat_procrastination/

\- lesswrong.com/lw/9wr/my_algorithm_for_beating_procrastination/

\-
[http://alexvermeer.com/getmotivated/](http://alexvermeer.com/getmotivated/)
\- has a pretty neat anti-procrastination poster that I'm still
procrastinating about printing out and hanging on the wall

\-
[https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Akrasia](https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Akrasia)

~~~
pizzasynthesis
I am now reading every article on the site, putting off more important things.

------
analyst74
I feel that many people, including myself, tend to value future gains in the
expense of present self.

These days, I'm not sure if that's such a great strategy. Why shouldn't we
satisfy our present self's needs? Why should we feel guilty for doing what we
want to do?

Of course, if you satisfy your present self in the expense of your future
self, that's self-destructive, and you'll eventually regret.

Personally, I find myself most motivated when I manage to find something that
satisfies both my present self and future self.

------
stickfigure
Strategy 5: Add a broken /etc/hosts entry for news.ycombinator.com

~~~
antsar
I used /etc/hosts to redirect distractions to a full-screen rickroll.
Surprisingly effective.

~~~
ajuc
In my previous job we had metal chairs and synthethic carpet that charged you
with even a few moves. Every single time I stood up and wanted to move my
chair out of the way - I was electrocuted.

I worked there for 10 months, yet few years later I'm still subconsciously
avoiding touching metal parts of my chair when I'm standing up to go to toilet
or make a tea.

I''m thinking it could be made into an app (with some usb device to punish
you) :)

------
danharaj
Flip it around: Akrasia is the state of having flawed judgment about one's
values. Of course the part of the brain that can speak always speaks highly of
itself to the detriment of all the other bits of brain. The important thing is
to convince all of yourself that something is worth doing. Telling yourself
that you _should_ do something is as persuasive as someone else chiding you to
do it. Yes, the verbal, "planning" part of your brain has convinced itself,
but it is also self-absorbed and treats the rest of the brain like its
footstool.

For an example, "I should lose weight" is a ridiculously abstract concept to
most of your brain. Your talky bit thinks it's saying something concrete: "Get
that number on the scale down", but it hasn't actually said enough. It's a
half-baked aspiration, not an activity. "I should exercise" is better: It
prescribes an abstract activity that would accomplish the goal. It's still
terrible though because it's still abstract. What is the value of exercise in
the abstract? You don't experience exercise in the abstract: how could you
possibly judge whether it is rewarding or not? How can you decide to
"exercise" when exercise isn't even a real thing?

"I should run" is even better: You know how running feels. You can feel good
running, and you can feel bad running. There are actual experiences and
knowledge to draw upon to determine the value of running. Still: Not enough.
Should you be running all the time? Verbal brain is being awfully sloppy, and
has the gall to blame the rest of the brain for its mistakes. "I should run
tomorrow in the morning for 30 minutes when I wake up." And we have arrived at
remedy #3 which is called implementation intention. Honestly, what other
intentions are actually intentions? If you're not planning concrete actions
but abstract classes of actions, you're daydreaming, not planning. Verbal
brain likes to talk about how important obligations and commitments are, but
avoids doing the work of translating its precious thoughts into something
intelligible to the rest of the brain.

The verbal part of your brain is easily convinced: By its own words. It
doesn't even know what it has convinced itself of but it is awfully satisfied
with itself. You, the ensemble of brain bits, are obviously skeptical of such
a gullible entity. When you experience satisfaction or gratification for doing
something, that is real knowledge to your brain; you learn what is good and
what is bad. Of course you're going to prefer real knowledge over the ravings
of an imbecile about the great rewards of not-even-a-real-thing.

~~~
copperx
I agree, and I have an anecdote to share. A few years back I wanted to lose
weight and get fit. I tried many things, but I inevitably fell back into old
patterns. Then I read a book by a bodybuilder in which basically 1/3 of it was
a pep talk -- it was so persuasive that by the end of reading it I knew, and
not just hoped, that I would get fit.

I lost 35 lbs and got in the best shape of my life through the constant work
of 1.5 years-- I became so dedicated to this pursuit that I would constantly
refuse short - term benefits to achieve my long term ones -- something that I
a lot of trouble with.

In other words, it was easy once I convinced myself of what my values were.

~~~
tizzdogg
What was the book?

~~~
leoc
It wasn't Arnold's one, was it?

"The kind of people who train alongside you in a gym makes a difference. If
you are surrounded by people who are serious and train with a lot of
intensity, it's easier for you to do the same thing. But it can be pretty hard
to really blast your muscles while the people around you are just going
through the motions. That is why good bodybuilders tend to congregate in
certain gyms. By having the example of other serious bodybuilders constantly
in front of you, you will train that much harder.

That is what made Joe Gold's original gym in Venice, California such a great
place—a small gym with just enough equipment, but where you would constantly
be rubbing shoulders with the great bodybuilders against whom I had the
privilege of competing-like Franco Columbu, Ed Corney, Dave Draper, Robby
Robinson, Frank Zane, Sergio Oliva, and Ken Waller. Nowadays, it's rare to
find that many champions in the same place, but if you aren't sharing the gym
floor with great bodybuilders like Flex Wheeler, Shawn Ray, Nasser El Sonbaty,
or Dorian Yates, it can be very motivating if there are pictures or posters of
these individuals on the walls or championship trophies displayed.

In 1980, training at World Gym for my final Mr. Olympia competition, I showed
up at the gym at seven o'clock one morning to work out and stepped out on the
sundeck for a moment. Suddenly the sun came through the clouds. It was so
beautiful I lost all my motivation to train. I thought maybe I would go to the
beach instead. I came up with every excuse in the book-the most persuasive
being that I had trained hard the day before with the powerful German
bodybuilder Jusup Wilkosz, so I could lay back today—but then I heard weights
being clanged together inside the gym and I saw Wilkosz working his abs, Ken
Waller doing shoulders, veins standing out all over his upper body, Franco
Columbu blasting away, benching more than 400 pounts, Samir Bannout punishing
his biceps with heavy Curls.

Everywhere I looked there was some kind of hard, sweaty training going on, and
I knew that I couldn't afford not to train if I was going to compete against
these champions. Their example sucked me in, and now I was looking forward to
working, anticipating the pleasure of pitting my muscles against heavy iron.
By the end of that session I had the best pump I could imagine, and an almost
wasted morning had turned into one of the best workouts of my life. If I
hadn't been there at World Gym, with those other bodybuilders to inspire and
motivate me, I doubt that day would have ended up being so productive.

Even today, when I'm training for other reason, such as getting into top shape
for a movie role, or just trying to stay in shape, I absorb energy from people
working out around me. That's why I still like to go to gyms where
bodybuilders are training for competition. Even today, after all this time, it
still inspires me."

p. 87 in the 1999 edition of /The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding/, by
Schwarzenegger and Bill Dobbins.
[http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0684857219/](http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0684857219/)
Great book, and actually quite pgesque, because to a large extent it's an
indirect discussion of how the world works and what it's like to effectively
pursue excellence.

~~~
vive-la-liberte
I unintentionally began reading the quote in Arnolds voice, noticed what I was
doing and attempted to keep doing it but found it too tiring imitating his
voice to be able to finish reading the quote. Serious question, is there an
audio book version of this book read by Arnold himself? That'd be neat.

------
aerialcombat
Maybe we need to find the answer to 'how to fight procrastination even when
knowing the answer to fighting procrastination'

~~~
cobaltblue
Non-judgmental fair third-party oversight who has free action only reversible
by themselves over your environment.

~~~
tomjen3
If we limit 'free action' to mean 'ability to charge your credit card' then
you are pretty much described beeminder.com (a company I highly recommend and
of which I am a very happy user).

~~~
TeMPOraL
I also recommend them to everyone, but between all the praise they're getting,
I think I should also give a fair word of warning - while great, it may not
work for everyone.

I used the service once; I tried to discipline myself out of a poor financial
situation using Beeminder - very quickly I found myself consistently slipping,
had to pay the money, and I ended up in a worse financial situation _and_
stressed to the point I could barely function.

Now don't treat it as a negative - instead, like a warning on the razor box:
this thing is sharp, _do not use when your hands are shaking_. It's great as a
motivator, but be sure you're in a good enough mental shape to handle both
your commitments and the eventual slip-ups.

That said, I also have to praise Beeminder for having a great tool with lots
of little nice features (I'm particularly fond of the graph aesthetics),
amazing and responsive support (and proactive - I screwed something up once,
they fixed it for me pretty much immediately and sent tips on how to avoid
this happening again), and wrote a lot of interesting things on akrasia.

EDIT:

To 'dreeves - long time ago I shared this experience over at SlateStarCodex,
and I missed your reply then. Referring to it, and that you're "extremely
averse to people paying money to Beeminder that they don’t feel was worth it"
\- no, I feel it was totally worth it, even if it contributed a bit to one of
my biggest stress episodes in my lifetime. I'm not scared of Beeminder, I'm
scared of myself. I treat it as a combat scar in battle against akrasia :). So
thanks for your kind refund offer, but a) you're totally entitled to the
money, and b) it was long time ago :).

Oh, and thanks for supporting SSC :).

And, to everyone else - did I tell you already that Beeminder people are
really great, friendly and radiate honesty in a way that's pretty much unseen
in this industry? I do very much recommend the service despite the fact that,
by my own fault, I managed to cut myself with it.

~~~
dreeves
Holy cow, you made my day! <blush> Thank you! Fascinating what you said in
another comment about the catch 22 of remembering and sticking to plans when
you're feeling good. Actually, I'm realizing I'm confused about this. I'm so
everything-looks-like-a-nail that it sounds eminently beemindable so it would
probably be good for me to keep trying to understand what I'm missing there.
dreeves@beeminder.com if an email thread seems easier.

Btw, I collected my replies from that SlateStarCodex comment thread and put
them here for posterity: [http://forum.beeminder.com/t/slate-star-codex-on-
willpower/5...](http://forum.beeminder.com/t/slate-star-codex-on-
willpower/593)

Thanks again for all the feedback and kind words!

------
theunixbeard
Does anyone else not have a problem with procrastination but instead
__following through and finishing projects __? Like you get 80-90% of the way
there but for whatever reason drop off before completing the job?

This seems like the worst problem because you do 80-90% of the work with 0% of
the benefit of accomplishing what you set out to do...

~~~
colanderman
Yes, but I attribute this to my unconscious mind simply using the projects to
learn things. Once I get 80-90% done, over the big hurdles, my unconscious is
satisfied and no longer has a desire to complete the project.

~~~
nikmobi
This. As long as there are still "unknowns", or things that I still need to
learn/figure out, I'm good to go. But once I hit that 90-95% mark where the
problems are solved and it's just grunt work, I bail out. My last project I
was able to overcome this, so hoping it becomes the new norm for me.

~~~
fratlas
Even though finishing/launching a project is a skill in itself, which I should
learn, I fall in to this trap also.

------
DarkTree
I've been growing tired of the many articles about "Never Procrastinate
Again!", "Top 8 ways to be productive" and "Do These 10 Morning Boosters every
day". But I gained some new insights in this article, and I appreciate the
context it was laced with. Thanks for sharing.

------
hcrisp
"Akrasia": This word also means "incontinence" or "intemperance" [1]. In other
words, unable to contain, unable to withhold, and hence mastered by personal
appetites (urges). It is used by both Jesus and Paul in the New Testament.

[1] [http://biblehub.com/greek/192.htm](http://biblehub.com/greek/192.htm)

------
ajmarsh
One day builds has been the key for me. I end up throwing away a lot of junk
that doesn't pan out, but I find it helps.

------
fallous
There's actually some excellent points in this for designing products,
especially onboarding and default experiences. Too much effort to get to the
actual work/core experience will tend to result in lack of use.

------
canthonytucci
The struggle is real.

I've been doing Pomodoro w/ a timer and finding it helpful. Found a lot of the
stuff here related to that process for me.

The first one of the day is still the hardest though. Nothing harder than
starting.

------
windhover
Aristotle introduced akrasia to explain why we make bad decisions in a moment
of weakness even though we know better. The point though is not to just stick
to commitments (and thereby have enkrateia, self-control), but to be virtuous
(arete) and not worry about out-of-control desires in the first place.

------
antihero
I honestly find that the difficulty is _maintaining_ good thought patterns.
For instance, on Mondays, I'm often hungover and on a comedown. Life feels
terrible, I'm unproductive at work, my self-esteem is shot, I basically hate
myself. I vow to change everything, go to the gym, to give up drugs and cut
down on booze. Awesome. By Wednesday I'm starting to feel positive - I feel
better in myself, things are going well, I'm productive again and my self-
esteem is returning.

By Friday, I feel so great, that the emotional memory of how I felt on Monday
is all but entirely faded. What was I so worried about? I've had (basically) a
great week, and the weekend is upon me - my phone is going off because people
want to go do things and get smashed and spend a load of money listening to
wicked music in fun, grotty venues and once that starts, I feel lifted and
amazing, the party is great! I'm meeting people, chatting shit, I don't want
to stop. Afterparty? Hell yes! Afterparties are for the cool kids and going to
them makes me a cool kid!

Then all of a sudden it's 11AM on a Sunday. You've either passed out or all of
the substances have worn off, you lug yourself back home, having possibly
succeeded at what your altered brain set out to achieve, but have frankly
forgotten most of it. You either go to bed Sunday, or get pissed with the
people who can't face the idea of returning to normality. Either way, in the
case of the former you can't sleep, and in the case of the latter you pass out
and wake up on Monday feeling so terrible that Monday is a write off. You are
full of self-loathing and duck your boss's calls, then the coworkers your boss
thinks you might just be able to handle's calls, then you either somehow
manage to get into work to be yelled at at 2PM or you just pass out again,
wake up at 4, and then have some dazed sort of day and catch some crappy sleep
and possibly salvage Tuesday.

So that was an extreme example (the life I'm trying to change, funnily
enough), but the point was that it's really really difficult to change in any
long term meaningful sense when your mind is so ready to forget the reasons
you're trying to do well. I don't think it's something as specific as
_alcoholism_ or _drug addiction_ , as it's a much more broad thing - booze and
drugs feel more like a symptom of a certain mindset, as opposed to the things
that cause it - I can quite happily (and have, many times) say no to drugs,
and I've had liquor on my side for months without touching it (and I can also
happily have a few beers without going nuts, too). Perhaps it's a symptom of
ADHD, perhaps it's a crippling poor impulse control and lack of self-
discipline, perhaps I'm a product of my environment (I live in Brighton which
is mental as it is, and my main friendship groups tend to hit things _hard_ )
I'm not sure.

I'm just going to keep trying. Each time it gets a little better, despite
fluctuating, and each time I get a bit more mature. Just have to hope I nail
it before I end up homeless or dead.

~~~
s_m_t
Perhaps it has to do with a certain expectation of your own behavior in that
environment?

From my own experience if I'm drinking with friends at one of our places I
have no problem staying 'responsibly inebriated'. I don't even have to try
really, it's just how I behave in that setting. However, when I go out to a
bar with friends I tend to drink too much. I think the change in setting and
context influences my behavior.

I think that part of it is that I have this feeling that I have to make the
night 'worth it' in a sense. I don't go out a lot so it's sort of like trying
to get all my fun in at once (which ends up being not so fun). It also feels
more natural to always have a drink in hand at a bar... or perhaps I feel
uncomfortable _without_ a drink a in hand, I'm not sure. Next time I go out
I'll try and keep these possible biases in mind and see how my behavior
changes.

~~~
antihero
Environment plays a massive part. FOMO to a degree, too. If you're in a pub
having a nice chat, you have a very different mentality to being at an squat
rave where everyone's fucked out of their head on mandy and ket, dancing like
maniacs, and talking shit and making out. Be mildly tipsy in the latter
situation and it's really hard to not feel like you're not really part of
things.

