“Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.”
―
You’ve committed yourself to losing fifteen pounds over the next three months. But while sitting at a restaurant for dinner, someone offers you a slice of chocolate cake. What are you to do?
There’s a big test in a week, and tonight you’ve decided that you’ll get some studying done. But it’s been a long week, and there’s a new netflix special on that you’ve been dying to watch. How to spend your evening?
Smoke that cigarette? Or make healthy decisions?
Save our money and invest it to save for an early retirement, or treat ourselves to an expensive dinner tonight?
Making decisions can be a messy and complicated process. Unfortunately, our minds are not the rational decision making machines we often think they are. What can seem like simple decisions can be motivated and influenced by many complex factors.
It can be a real challenge to weight the pros and cons of instant versus delayed gratification. Is something worth more now or later?
It’s been found that we’re often not that good at estimating the value of something far away in the future. There’s a tendency of the mind to over or under estimate the value of a reward based on how far away it is. This is known as temporal discounting.
Temporal Discounting
Human motivation is highly influenced by how imminent the reward is perceived to be. The further away a reward, the more likely we are to discount it’s value.
Because of this, we often put off work we need to do in the future for less important things we’d prefer to do now.
We discount the value of a reward far off in the future for instant gratification now – even for an object of lesser value.
Watching that netflix special is perceived to be more important then your test a week from now. That is until the test gets closer and the proximity increases the value of a good mark …. and then you cram and pull an all-nighter.
In a classic experiment participants were offered either $100 now, or $120 in a week. What would you choose? Almost all of the participants picked the $100 that was offered immediately.
However, when the time span was changed. Either $100 in a year, or $120 in a year and a week, participants chose the item with the greater reward. Thinking about it myself, I’d do the same.
But is this rational behaviour? The actual time span (one week) and value difference ($20) hasn’t changed at all. But given the immediacy of the first two variables, we choose the instant rewards. And with greater time to think about it, we choose the reward with the greater value.
We often struggle when comparing two variables that differ in value versus time and often favour immediacy.
Why is this?
From a neuroscience perspective, we are motivated by two primary systems. One is our emotional or “reptilian” brain (the limbic system) where we respond to the neurotransmitter dopamine. This is our impulse and reward centre. On the other side is our prefrontal cortex which is involved in planning, memory and attention. It helps us think about situationally appropriate behaviour and help us plan our long-term goals.
When something enjoyable happens, we frequently get a dose of dopamine. This activates our reward system, feels good, and modifies our neurons, making it more likely that we’ll repeat this behaviour in the future.
So playing some video games, looking at our phone, or eating deserts provide us with small doses of dopamine. Where as a long-term project might provide us with a one-time future reward far off in the distance. Thus we are motivated to seek out a short-term dopamine boost.
From an evolutionary standpoint, we did not evolve to seek out long-term gratification. Under our previous living conditions, the caveman wasn’t assured a long-term survival and thus was wired to seek out more immediate goals. Seek out that reward now, rather than wait for an uncertain future that isn’t guaranteed. Thus we have a tendency to prefer immediacy when given the choice.
What does this mean?
This is one of the reasons we struggle to achieve our long-term goals. Giving up immediate gratification for a long-term goal, even if it is better for us, goes against our natural tendencies.
We often don’t prioritize important things like our future health, wellness, and finances, even though we know we should.
Socially, we consume more than we should, buy more than we need, and don’t often factor in the future health, wellness, and financial stability of our planet. This is in spite of the fact that we know so much better.
Are we screwed?
Not necessarily. Even being aware of this bias can help you make more informed decisions about yourself and your future.
You are not your mind. You can train yourself not to give into cravings, and do the things that are better for you in the long run. The more you are able to do this, the easier it becomes.
One tip is to try the Pomodoro technique. Set a timer (there’s an app for this) to give yourself 25 minutes to complete a task. At the end of the 25 minutes, give yourself a five minute break and reward. Surf the web, have a snack, take a break. When those five minutes are up, reset the timer and start again. This time management strategy works because it allows for small frequent rewards while forcing you to work away on your dedicated task.
Overcoming temporal discounting
In the same refrain, take large goals and break them down into smaller tasks. Perhaps rewards yourself at the end of any mini-acheivment. Instead of trying to lose fifteen pounds in three months, aim for five pounds in a month. Or even 1-2 pounds a week.
Create some self-imposed deadlines. When writing a blog post. I usually set a one to two hour deadline and as arbitrary as it is, it definitely motivates me to work harder and write that much faster.
Imagine your future-self benefitting from the long-term reward. Imagining a future-self enjoying the benefits of your work up front can help to arrange your priorities.
Make a list of why you want to complete a stated goal. Perhaps put in on a wall or on your refrigerator. Stating your commitment to a goal minimizes indecision.
Remove distractions if necessary. Turn off your phone or laptop for a period of time that you’re committed to your work. When I write, it’s airplane mode for me.
Commit to a plan ahead of time. When it comes to savings we know that people that automatically have a portion of their salary taken from their paycheck and automatically invested save much more over the long term than those who don’t.
Be aware of the effects of temporal discounting, and realize that sometimes it actually is better to sacrifice the rewards of now for a better future.
Thoughts? Ideas?
