The Procrastination Equation
Increase the size of a task’s reward (including both the pleasantness of doing the task and the value of its after-effects), and your motivation goes up. Increase the perceived odds of getting the reward, and your motivation also goes up.
The denominator covers the effect of time on our motivation to do a task. The longer the delay before we reap a task’s reward, the less motivated we are to do it. And the negative effect of this delay on our motivation is amplified by our level of impulsiveness. For highly impulsive people, delays do even greater damage to their motivation.
Once you know the procrastination equation, our general strategy is obvious. Since there is usually little you can do about the delay of a task’s reward, we’ll focus on the three terms of the procrastination equation over which we have some control. To beat procrastination, we need to:
- Increase your expectancy of success.
- Increase the task’s value (make it more pleasant and rewarding).
- Decrease your impulsiveness.
You might think these things are out of your control, but researchers have found several useful methods for achieving each of them.
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Love looks not with the eye but with the mind.
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| — | from Midsummer Night’s Dream, as tattooed on Alexander McQueen’s arm. (via theviesociety) |
