As one person in the article describes it, using a low-reward lottery made taking his meds “like a game;” he couldn’t wait to check the dispenser to see if he’d won (and take his meds again). Instead of thinking about how they have some terrible condition, they get excited thinking about how they could be winning money. The Ugh field has been demolished, with the once-feared procedure now associated with a tried-and-true intermittent reward system.
The personal banhammer scares me a little, because it seems likely to build up that ugh field. I totally understand the need to solidly trim away strong, unproductive attractors—and if you can do it rigorously, you might achieve the extinction) of that attraction, and no longer suffer it. For things that you want, but do not like or approve of (like here), extinction of that desire is actually a great goal.
But actual extinction takes longer than a few days tha tyou stay blocked on a project. Moreover, you don’t want to stop being motivated to do things that you enjoy—you should occasionally do enjoyable things!
Did you try any of these techniques? Tricks from there that have helped me include several things to improve energy, and making tasks harder to engage flow. (Just before writing this reply, I finished a kitchen full of dishes that had been sitting for three days—and enjoyed it—because I set a timer for 25 minutes, and then tried to beat the timer. (I did, but only barely.))
For me, the most important trick on that page—I don’t think it’s emphasized enough on that page—is to set explicit goals and then “granularize” them: spend 10 minutes to break each goal into tiny pieces. Luke recommends breaking them into “daily” goals, but he’s a highly energetic person. Where possible, I set goals that I think will take about 2 hours to meet.
So, next time you notice that you’re dreading some task on that scale, can you breaking it down into subgoals, see if it helps, and report back here?
Breaking it down helped a bit, but ultimately wasn’t enough, because I’d finish the goal and then go procrastinate more. Maybe I need bigger goals. I’ll read that stuff, I hadn’t seen it before.
People seem afraid of the banhammer, maybe I described it wrong. I wasn’t using it on things that were enjoyable and good but not productive, it was for stuff that I realized was just sucking time and not really giving me anything.
I don’t see how the banhammer is related to ugh fields. I’ll check out the stuff you linked, but you might have to explain more. The ugh field is stuff that is unpleasant to think about and do, the banhammer is to do with stuff that is addictive.
Edit: Yeah, for the longer banished stuff like the twilight fanfic and skyrim, i don’t feel the need anymore. That’s called extinction?
edit: sorry it was really good, but it literally ate a few days and disrupted my sleep. It wasn’t helping me become stronger so I cut it. It might be nice to go back, but I wont, because I need to have that test of myself.
From Defeating Ugh Fields in Practice:
The personal banhammer scares me a little, because it seems likely to build up that ugh field. I totally understand the need to solidly trim away strong, unproductive attractors—and if you can do it rigorously, you might achieve the extinction) of that attraction, and no longer suffer it. For things that you want, but do not like or approve of (like here), extinction of that desire is actually a great goal.
But actual extinction takes longer than a few days tha tyou stay blocked on a project. Moreover, you don’t want to stop being motivated to do things that you enjoy—you should occasionally do enjoyable things!
Did you try any of these techniques? Tricks from there that have helped me include several things to improve energy, and making tasks harder to engage flow. (Just before writing this reply, I finished a kitchen full of dishes that had been sitting for three days—and enjoyed it—because I set a timer for 25 minutes, and then tried to beat the timer. (I did, but only barely.))
For me, the most important trick on that page—I don’t think it’s emphasized enough on that page—is to set explicit goals and then “granularize” them: spend 10 minutes to break each goal into tiny pieces. Luke recommends breaking them into “daily” goals, but he’s a highly energetic person. Where possible, I set goals that I think will take about 2 hours to meet.
So, next time you notice that you’re dreading some task on that scale, can you breaking it down into subgoals, see if it helps, and report back here?
Breaking it down helped a bit, but ultimately wasn’t enough, because I’d finish the goal and then go procrastinate more. Maybe I need bigger goals. I’ll read that stuff, I hadn’t seen it before.
People seem afraid of the banhammer, maybe I described it wrong. I wasn’t using it on things that were enjoyable and good but not productive, it was for stuff that I realized was just sucking time and not really giving me anything.
I don’t see how the banhammer is related to ugh fields. I’ll check out the stuff you linked, but you might have to explain more. The ugh field is stuff that is unpleasant to think about and do, the banhammer is to do with stuff that is addictive.
Edit: Yeah, for the longer banished stuff like the twilight fanfic and skyrim, i don’t feel the need anymore. That’s called extinction?
Are… are you not going to go back to the fic ever?
that’s the idea
edit: sorry it was really good, but it literally ate a few days and disrupted my sleep. It wasn’t helping me become stronger so I cut it. It might be nice to go back, but I wont, because I need to have that test of myself.
Forget it, Ali. It’s Akrasiatown.