Indeed, willpower and working memory are both strongly mediated by the dorsolateral prefontal cortex, so “distraction” could just be the two functions funging against one another.
If true, this is the most important thing I have read in several months. Thank you.
How specifically to use this? When you face a situation that requires a lot of willpower, you should try to clear your working memory somehow. Meditate. Make written notes. Not just generally, but right before you do the task that requires the willpower.
I am not sure if I am not falling prey to confirmation bias here, but when I think about situations where I had emotional problems to do something at work (like: I know what I should do, but I just feel a huge distaste I cannot overcome, so I am unable to focus on the task), it usually was a situation where I was required to hold too many pieces of information in my memory (e.g. undocumented code plus dozen verbally given requirements plus random distractions). Taking a piece of paper and writing everything down helped a lot. It was not just intellectually easier, but also somehow emotionally more okay. This doesn’t happen when I write my own code, probably because I code in a style that doesn’t require remembering many things. -- I am still confused that people around me don’t seem to have this effect, but it could be because I store things in my memory differently, so I deplete my working memory a bit faster. (This doesn’t necessarily mean my memory works worse, just that it works untypically, so when people around me optimize things for how their memory works, the result doesn’t work as well for me.)
If true, this is the most important thing I have read in several months. Thank you.
How specifically to use this? When you face a situation that requires a lot of willpower, you should try to clear your working memory somehow. Meditate. Make written notes. Not just generally, but right before you do the task that requires the willpower.
I am not sure if I am not falling prey to confirmation bias here, but when I think about situations where I had emotional problems to do something at work (like: I know what I should do, but I just feel a huge distaste I cannot overcome, so I am unable to focus on the task), it usually was a situation where I was required to hold too many pieces of information in my memory (e.g. undocumented code plus dozen verbally given requirements plus random distractions). Taking a piece of paper and writing everything down helped a lot. It was not just intellectually easier, but also somehow emotionally more okay. This doesn’t happen when I write my own code, probably because I code in a style that doesn’t require remembering many things. -- I am still confused that people around me don’t seem to have this effect, but it could be because I store things in my memory differently, so I deplete my working memory a bit faster. (This doesn’t necessarily mean my memory works worse, just that it works untypically, so when people around me optimize things for how their memory works, the result doesn’t work as well for me.)