I’d like to put out a call for anecdata, if I may:
Lately I’ve been wondering how much of a causal connection there is between happiness/fulfillment and willpower (or, conversely, akrasia) levels. I feel like I’m not especially fulfilled or happy in my life right now, and I can’t help but feel intuitively that this is one cause of the difficulty I seem to have in focusing, concentrating, and putting effort into what I want to. However, I’ve no idea whether there’s actually anything in this.
So: I guess I wondered if anyone has any personal accounts of (medium- to long-term) mood affecting akrasia levels in their own lives? I invite you to share here. (Also welcomed: advice; discussion; pointers to actual, nonanecdotal, study-type data.)
Well, I certainly find that the two are correlated… when my mood is low, I don’t get much done compared to when my mood is elevated. Whether that’s because getting things done influences my mood (and something else influences my productivity), or whether my mood influences my productivity (and something else influences my mood), or whether neither is true (and something else influences both), or various combinations, is harder to tease out. My impression is that all three are true at different times.
Right. It figures that causation would go the other way, at least—that the presence of akrasia would cause bad mood. Indeed, akrasia is pretty much defined as that which makes you unhappy, right?
I’ve noticed the converse seems to be true in me, at least to a degree: getting useful work done causes me to feel happier. I have not noticed happiness causing me to get more useful work done.
I have noticed both, but happiness does seem to improve more after the start of useful work than useful work improves after an increase in happiness. I might describe it as certain types of work requiring a threshold level of happiness to initiate, among other requirements.
I’ve been noticing this tendency for years and trying to use it to my advantage (much to the annoyance of all the mainstream types who only inquire into my methods when they fail). A particular anecdote that comes to mind is how, after weeks of not managing to care enough to complete any assignments for a course that I like so little as to have since given up on, I discovered HPMoR, which I read in one sitting, other than the ten minutes in the middle where I stopped to complete one of these assignments.
Happiness in / Happiness out, so to speak, except that happiness is obviously not the only activation condition, so attempting to use it without the others present just wastes happiness. (The trouble is how one goes about recognizing the necessary activation conditions for useful work and their presence/absence so as to avoid wasting happiness unnecessarily.)
I’d like to put out a call for anecdata, if I may:
Lately I’ve been wondering how much of a causal connection there is between happiness/fulfillment and willpower (or, conversely, akrasia) levels. I feel like I’m not especially fulfilled or happy in my life right now, and I can’t help but feel intuitively that this is one cause of the difficulty I seem to have in focusing, concentrating, and putting effort into what I want to. However, I’ve no idea whether there’s actually anything in this.
So: I guess I wondered if anyone has any personal accounts of (medium- to long-term) mood affecting akrasia levels in their own lives? I invite you to share here. (Also welcomed: advice; discussion; pointers to actual, nonanecdotal, study-type data.)
This is definitely the case according to my experiences and pretty much every self-help text I’ve ever read. You might want to check out this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broaden-and-build
I’ll take a look; thanks pal.
Well, I certainly find that the two are correlated… when my mood is low, I don’t get much done compared to when my mood is elevated.
Whether that’s because getting things done influences my mood (and something else influences my productivity), or whether my mood influences my productivity (and something else influences my mood), or whether neither is true (and something else influences both), or various combinations, is harder to tease out.
My impression is that all three are true at different times.
Right. It figures that causation would go the other way, at least—that the presence of akrasia would cause bad mood. Indeed, akrasia is pretty much defined as that which makes you unhappy, right?
When I have above usual levels of productivity, I’m moderately happier than the norm. When I have below usual levels, I’m much unhappier than normal.
I’ve noticed the converse seems to be true in me, at least to a degree: getting useful work done causes me to feel happier. I have not noticed happiness causing me to get more useful work done.
I have noticed both, but happiness does seem to improve more after the start of useful work than useful work improves after an increase in happiness. I might describe it as certain types of work requiring a threshold level of happiness to initiate, among other requirements.
I’ve been noticing this tendency for years and trying to use it to my advantage (much to the annoyance of all the mainstream types who only inquire into my methods when they fail). A particular anecdote that comes to mind is how, after weeks of not managing to care enough to complete any assignments for a course that I like so little as to have since given up on, I discovered HPMoR, which I read in one sitting, other than the ten minutes in the middle where I stopped to complete one of these assignments.
Happiness in / Happiness out, so to speak, except that happiness is obviously not the only activation condition, so attempting to use it without the others present just wastes happiness. (The trouble is how one goes about recognizing the necessary activation conditions for useful work and their presence/absence so as to avoid wasting happiness unnecessarily.)
Interesting. My correlations go in the opposite direction.