Akrasia - The Act Of Self-Sabotage And What To Do About It.

I recently stumbled onto the concept of akrasia.

Although the concept itself was not new to me, the word itself and the subsequent rabbit-hole that it opened up was a wonderfully interesting and eye-opening topic to discover.

Little did I know, James Clear talks about it in Atomic Habits - a book synonymous with productivity and habit development - so, maybe you too already knew about it.

Anyways, Akrasia is the state of acting against your better judgment.

You know better, and yet you find yourself spending time on something when you should be doing something else.

It is a lack of self-control.

It is immediate gratification.

It is the kryptonite to your success.

Furthermore, it’s nothing new. It’s a concept dating back to ancient Greek philosophers, indiscriminately plaguing the literary famous such as Victor Hugo as well as the lowly nobodies such as myself.

So don’t worry if this part resonates with you. It resonates with all of us.

James Hugo explains it well and connects it with the behavioural economics term known as “time inconsistency.” Time inconsistency refers to the tendency to value immediate rewards more highly than future rewards.

You know - instant gratification.

And social media companies deliver this instant gratification hard and fast with the gamification of our lives, and 24/7 access to our attention via our smart phones.

Instead of long-term focus, deep work, and lasting benefit, we find ourselves gravitating towards quick dopamine hits. The quick glance at the phone, the buzz of our phones notifying us of a like/retweet/comment sets our dopamine centres ablaze.

We aren’t acting in our future self’s best interest. Far from it, we are instead making a distinct separation between our present selves and our future selves.

When the time comes to make a decision, despite knowing what is best for our future self conceptually, we are in the moment and your brain is thinking about the present self rather than making a choice for our future self.

Your brain values long-term benefits when they are in the future, but it values immediate gratification when it comes to the present moment. And unfortunately, we act as though our future and present self are not the same.

So what do we do about it?

Three Strats For Designing Life To Favour Future You

Here are three ways to overcome akrasia, beat procrastination, and follow through on what you set out to do.

Strategy 1: Lock Yourself In For Futureproofing

When Victor Hugo needed to write the Hunchback of Notre Dame, he locked his clothes away so he could focus on writing. With no clothes, he couldn’t leave the apartment and he spent his seasons writing as a result. He created a “commitment device”, a choice made in the present that controls your actions in the future.

If you intentionally close off opportunities and options in the future, you lock in a future behaviour, binding you to a good habit and restricting yourself from bad ones. By acting in a way that doesn’t impact your present self but locks the actions of future you, your present self has no need to resist present instant gratification. Once future self becomes present self, you’re already locked in and don’t need to rely on willpower anymore.

A present day example would be uninstalling social media apps or using a Smart Phone lock box to restrict access.

By automating or steering your behaviour beforehand rather than relying on willpower in the moment, you can design a lifestyle that favours your future self.

This is why having a workout buddy and social accountability works for some people.

This is why automatic savings plans and budgeting to assign your money a job is effective.

Strategy 2: So Easy, You Can’t Say No.

More often than not, the starting of the work is the biggest barrier.

The work isn’t the challenge once you’re in the middle of it.

It is the act of stopping what you are doing and opening the textbook or staring at a blank page and starting to type or write away.

Once you begin, it’s often less painful to do the work. The hard part is beginning.

This is why things like the 5-minute rule exist.

James Clear talks about making a habit so easy, you can’t say no.

We have a ton of habits ingrained into our lives that we automatically do them without thinking.

Flushing the toilet after we pee.

Turning off the lights when we leave a room.

Saying “Excuse me” after a sneeze.

They are so easy that they stuck around for the long-term.

Building no brainer habits can help with the longevity and ease of adaptation.

Strategy 3: Declaring implementation intentions.

It is important to arrive at an implementation intention independently. This is a very personal step because this is where you make your commitment to yourself.

You state your intention to implement a particular behaviour at a specific time in the future and you do so clearly and specifically.

What is it specifically that you plan to do?

How will you go about it?

What will be the first step?

What do you need to get started?

When will you do it and how regularly?

It’s important enough a step, that if you aren’t quite ready to answer these specific questions, it may not be good to push forward yet; because you aren’t ready to commit to the specifics.

By the end, declaring your intentions should be as clear as:

I will exercise for at least 30 minutes on [DATE] in [PLACE] at [TIME]. The type of exercise I do will be ________ and I will repeat these exercises every 2-3 days.

The more clearly you declare your intentions, the more realistic and accounted for they will become. If you assign a time, you will not accidentally be preoccupied with something else. The more detail you provide on what your intentions are, the more specific and clearly you can see yourself accomplishing them.

Learn How To Embrace Discomfort For Present You For Future You

Present self doesn’t need to have willpower. Present self simply needs to continue to show up daily.

Present self needs to lock future self into good obligations. Make present self’s demands simple, effortless, and so easy, you can’t say no.

Clearly and specifically outline when future self needs to show up, what future self needs to do, and announce this intention openly.

Worse comes to worse, lock away all your clothes and become a hermit until you accomplish your goals.