In the last few years I’ve been thinking about all the separate mental modules that influence productivity, procrastination, akrasia etc. in their own unique ways. (The one thing that’s for sure is that the ability to get stuff done isn’t monolithic.) This is how my breakdown of the psychology of productivity looks like, and I have a hunch that these are all separate and generate their own effects independently (more or less) of the others:
a baseline level of energy or willingness to take control of your own life
an affinity-based system that makes you autonomously pick some activities over others
a willpower system that makes you keep going in spite of difficulties
a “negative willpower” system that helps you abstain from temptations or impulses
a response-to-incentives feature that regulates how extrinsic factors influence behavior
a set of time-dependent responses that generate, among others: temporal discounting; putting off tasks; anxiety as deadline approaches; desperate last-minute efforts
I think to back up the hunch you’d need to poll some people, see if their akrasia comes from being weak on some points rather than others—if that’s the case, and they’re not consistently the same points, then probably it does work that way. I personally feel like I’m bad with respect to all the modules listed.
Yes, that’s what I was trying to do with the parent comment. I used myself as a reference for these points, as well as drawing on various anecdotes I’ve heard about other people.
E.g. I’m high on “negative willpower”, high on perseverance against physical discomfort (tiredness, hunger, pain), low on perseverance against boredom, frustration, and the feeling of being stuck.
I’m very low on #1, and also have low affinity for, say, math, and hence I never put in the hours for learning it well, but I’ve heard of people who are also low on #1 but happen to have very high affinity for math, who’d go on and entertain themselves with their equations and theorems while dishes gathered in the sink and rent went unpaid. (Proof they don’t necessarily have better work ethic than me.) Then there are people who do mildly dislike crouching over math textbooks for hours, but are very high on #3 and push themselves to keep going. (Proof that sometimes it is a matter of work ethic.)
I listed #5 as its own factor because it can override other items on the list, and all the other items above it lacked any inherent reference to external factors. It could be a strong or a weak tendency; for instance, I notice about myself that I’m not particularly moved by rewards or punishments; moreover, my indifference to them seems tweaked especially to cause me to lose the greatest amount of money possible, either by missing opportunities or by having to pay up. (That’s why I never ever plan on using Beeminder.) #6 is there because the whole thing lacked a time dimension without it. For example, however badly I might fare on other points, I’m only a moderate procrastinator (for tasks I don’t loathe with a fervor), tend to begin working on assignments towards the midpoint of the available time range, and consider the long term.
In the last few years I’ve been thinking about all the separate mental modules that influence productivity, procrastination, akrasia etc. in their own unique ways. (The one thing that’s for sure is that the ability to get stuff done isn’t monolithic.) This is how my breakdown of the psychology of productivity looks like, and I have a hunch that these are all separate and generate their own effects independently (more or less) of the others:
a baseline level of energy or willingness to take control of your own life
an affinity-based system that makes you autonomously pick some activities over others
a willpower system that makes you keep going in spite of difficulties
a “negative willpower” system that helps you abstain from temptations or impulses
a response-to-incentives feature that regulates how extrinsic factors influence behavior
a set of time-dependent responses that generate, among others: temporal discounting; putting off tasks; anxiety as deadline approaches; desperate last-minute efforts
Is this right? Discuss.
I think to back up the hunch you’d need to poll some people, see if their akrasia comes from being weak on some points rather than others—if that’s the case, and they’re not consistently the same points, then probably it does work that way. I personally feel like I’m bad with respect to all the modules listed.
Yes, that’s what I was trying to do with the parent comment. I used myself as a reference for these points, as well as drawing on various anecdotes I’ve heard about other people.
E.g. I’m high on “negative willpower”, high on perseverance against physical discomfort (tiredness, hunger, pain), low on perseverance against boredom, frustration, and the feeling of being stuck.
I’m very low on #1, and also have low affinity for, say, math, and hence I never put in the hours for learning it well, but I’ve heard of people who are also low on #1 but happen to have very high affinity for math, who’d go on and entertain themselves with their equations and theorems while dishes gathered in the sink and rent went unpaid. (Proof they don’t necessarily have better work ethic than me.) Then there are people who do mildly dislike crouching over math textbooks for hours, but are very high on #3 and push themselves to keep going. (Proof that sometimes it is a matter of work ethic.)
I listed #5 as its own factor because it can override other items on the list, and all the other items above it lacked any inherent reference to external factors. It could be a strong or a weak tendency; for instance, I notice about myself that I’m not particularly moved by rewards or punishments; moreover, my indifference to them seems tweaked especially to cause me to lose the greatest amount of money possible, either by missing opportunities or by having to pay up. (That’s why I never ever plan on using Beeminder.) #6 is there because the whole thing lacked a time dimension without it. For example, however badly I might fare on other points, I’m only a moderate procrastinator (for tasks I don’t loathe with a fervor), tend to begin working on assignments towards the midpoint of the available time range, and consider the long term.