The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don't Follow Through On What We Set
Out to Do And What To Do About It
By James Clear
June 20, 2016 8:20pm
By the summer of 1830, Victor Hugo was facing an impossible deadline. Twelve
months earlier, the famous French author had made an agreement with his
publisher that he would write a new book titled, The Hunchback of Notre
Dame.
Instead of writing the book, Hugo spent the next year pursuing other
projects, entertaining guests, and delaying his work on the text. Hugo's
publisher had become frustrated by his repeated procrastination and responded by
setting a formidable deadline. The publisher demanded that Hugo finish the book
by February of 1831--less than 6 months away.
Hugo developed a plan to beat his procrastination. He collected all of his
clothes, removed them from his chambers, and locked them away. He was left with
nothing to wear except a large shawl. Lacking any suitable clothing to go
outdoors, Hugo was no longer tempted to leave the house and get distracted.
Staying inside and writing was his only option. [1]
The strategy worked. Hugo remained in his study each day and wrote furiously
during the fall and winter of 1830. The Hunchback of Notre Dame was
published two weeks early on January 14, 1831.
The Ancient Problem of Akrasia
Human beings have been procrastinating for centuries. Even prolific artists
like Victor Hugo are not immune to the distractions of daily life. The problem
is so timeless, in fact, that ancient Greek philosophers like Socrates and
Aristotle developed a word to describe this type of behavior:
Akrasia.
Akrasia is the state of acting against your better judgement.It is
when you do one thing even though you know you should do something else. Loosely
translated, you could say that akrasia is procrastination or a lack of
self-control. Akrasia is what prevents you from following through on
what you set out to do.
Why would Victor Hugo commit to writing a book and then put it off for over a
year? Why do we make plans, set deadlines, and commit to goals, but then fail to
follow through on them?
Why We Make Plans, But Don't Take Action
One explanation for why akrasia rules our lives and procrastination
pulls us in has to do with a behavioral economics term called "time
inconsistency." Time inconsistency refers to the tendency of the human brain to
value immediate rewards more highly than future rewards.
When you make plans for yourself -- like setting a goal to lose weight or
write a book or learn a language -- you are actually making plans for your
future self. You are envisioning what you want your life to be like in the
future and when you think about the future it is easy for your brain to see the
value in taking actions with long-term benefits.
When the time comes to make a decision, however, you are no longer making a
choice for your future self. Now you are in the moment and your brain is
thinking about the present self. And researchers have discovered that the
present self really likes instant gratification, not long-term payoff. This is
one reason why you might go to bed feeling motivated to make a change in your
life, but when you wake up you find yourself falling into old patterns. Your
brain values long-term benefits when they are in the future, but it values
immediate gratification when it comes to the present moment.
This is one reason why the ability to delay gratification is such a great predictor
of success in life. Understanding how to resist the pull of instant
gratification--at least occasionally, if not consistently--can help you bridge
the gap between where you are and where you want to be.
The Akrasia Antidote: 3 Ways to Beat
Procrastination
Here are three ways to overcome akrasia, beat procrastination, and follow
through on what you set out to do.
Strategy 1: Design your future actions.
When Victor Hugo locked his clothes away so he could focus on writing, he was
creating what psychologists refer to as a "commitment device." Commitment
devices are strategies that help improve your behavior by either increasing the
obstacles or costs of bad behaviors or reducing the effort required for good
behaviors.
You can curb your future eating habits by purchasing food in individual
packages rather than in the bulk size. You can stop wasting time on your phone
by deleting games or social media apps. You can reduce the likelihood of
mindless channel surfing by hiding your TV in a closet and only taking it out on
big game days. You can voluntarily ask to be added to the banned list at casinos
and online gambling sites to prevent future gambling sprees. You can build an
emergency fund by setting up an automatic transfer of funds to your savings
account. These are commitment devices.
The circumstances differ, but the message is the same: commitment devices can
help you design your future actions. Find ways to automate your behavior
beforehand rather than relying on willpower in the moment. Be the architect of
your future actions, not the victim of them. [2]
Strategy 2: Reduce the friction of starting.
The guilt and frustration of procrastinating is usually worse than the pain
of doing the work. In the words of Eliezer Yudkowsky, "On a moment-to-moment
basis, being in the middle of doing the work is usually less painful than being
in the middle of procrastinating."
So why do we still procrastinate? Because it's not being in the work that is
hard, it's starting the work. The friction that prevents us from taking action
is usually centered around starting the behavior. Once you begin, it's often
less painful to do the work. This is why it is often more important to build the habit of getting started when you're beginning a
new behavior than it is to worry about whether or not you are successful at the
new habit.
You have to constantly reduce the size of your habits. Put all of your effort and
energy into building a ritual and make it as easy as possible to get
started. Don't worry about the results until you've mastered the art of showing
up.
Strategy 3: Utilize implementation intentions.
An implementation intention is when you state your intention to implement a
particular behavior at a specific time in the future. For example, "I will
exercise for at least 30 minutes on [DATE] in [PLACE] at [TIME]."
There are hundreds of successful studies showing how implementation
intentions positively impact everything from exercise habits to flu shots. In
the flu shot study, researchers looked at a group of 3,272 employees at a
Midwestern company and found that employees who wrote down the specific date and
time they planned to get their flu shot were significantly more likely to follow
through weeks later. [3]
It seems simple to say that scheduling things ahead of time can make a difference, but as I have covered previously, implementation intentions
can make you 2x to 3x more likely to perform an action in the
future.
Our brains prefer instant rewards to long-term payoffs. It's simply a
consequence of how our minds work. Given this tendency, we often have to resort
to crazy strategies to get things done--like Victor Hugo locking up all of his
clothes so he could write a book. But I believe it is worth it to spend time
building these commitment devices if your goals are important to you.
Aristotle coined the term enkrateia as the antonym of akrasia. While
akrasia refers to our tendency to fall victim to procrastination,
enkrateia means to be "in power over oneself." Designing your future
actions, reducing the friction of starting good behaviors, and using
implementation intentions are simple steps that you can take to make it easier
to live a life of enkrateia rather than one of akrasia.
[4]
James Clear writes at JamesClear.com, where he shares science-based ideas for
living a better life and building habits that stick. To get strategies for
boosting your mental and physical performance by 10x, join his free newsletter.
This article was originally published on JamesClear.com.
- The story about Victor Hugo locking away his clothes has become embellished over the years. Most versions claim that he had a servant routinely lock away his clothes while he wrote naked each day. As best I can tell, this embellishment is a myth. The true version that I describe in this article originally comes from a book by Hugo's wife: "Victor Hugo Recounted by a Witness of His Life" by Adele Foucher.
- Thanks to my friends at Beeminder for some of the ideas I mention here. You can see their full article on commitment devices to overcome akrasia for more ideas.
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