A rewrite, using Feeling words: if you feel happy, content and fulfilled, you will be better able to do the things you have to do. If you believe that doing those things is likely to accomplish a goal you have, you will be better able to motivate yourself to do them. If you cannot bring yourself to do what you have to do, find something which will make you feel happy, content or fulfilled; or if you cannot do that, play Tetris or whatever which will at least take your mind off the guilt, until it comes back worse later.
What will make you feel fulfilled?
What will make you feel that doing the task you have to do will make achieving your goal more likely?
The goal is the satisfaction of greatest utility, and akrasia seems to come into play when that isn’t the path of greatest perceived immediate reward, or is a path of a lot of perceived initial difficulty. Accomplishing the greatest total utility is the real goal, not necessarily experiencing fulfillment, happiness or contentment any time soon. Indeed some of the things that make me feel happy and otherwise content just drive me to do more of them, which isn’t my real goal. What I strive for more than those three things is motivation, and indeed I look for activities that the more I do them, the less happy I am about doing them and not doing what I know I ought to. At least if I’m not currently working towards the real goals themselves. But yes, I will at least agree that it’s harder to be productive if you really feel like crap, so a certain level of contentment is important.
If you believe that doing those things is likely to accomplish a goal you have, you will be better able to motivate yourself to do them.
This is an idea and strategy I’ve found a lot of success with, working to align what brings fulfillment with what I rationally expect to bring the greatest utility. This is feeling content about doing the things I have to though, not in order to do them.
A rewrite, using Feeling words: if you feel happy, content and fulfilled, you will be better able to do the things you have to do. If you believe that doing those things is likely to accomplish a goal you have, you will be better able to motivate yourself to do them. If you cannot bring yourself to do what you have to do, find something which will make you feel happy, content or fulfilled; or if you cannot do that, play Tetris or whatever which will at least take your mind off the guilt, until it comes back worse later.
What will make you feel fulfilled? What will make you feel that doing the task you have to do will make achieving your goal more likely?
The goal is the satisfaction of greatest utility, and akrasia seems to come into play when that isn’t the path of greatest perceived immediate reward, or is a path of a lot of perceived initial difficulty. Accomplishing the greatest total utility is the real goal, not necessarily experiencing fulfillment, happiness or contentment any time soon. Indeed some of the things that make me feel happy and otherwise content just drive me to do more of them, which isn’t my real goal. What I strive for more than those three things is motivation, and indeed I look for activities that the more I do them, the less happy I am about doing them and not doing what I know I ought to. At least if I’m not currently working towards the real goals themselves. But yes, I will at least agree that it’s harder to be productive if you really feel like crap, so a certain level of contentment is important.
This is an idea and strategy I’ve found a lot of success with, working to align what brings fulfillment with what I rationally expect to bring the greatest utility. This is feeling content about doing the things I have to though, not in order to do them.
Fight Akrasia by playing tetris???