Cognitive Tools: Triumph of the Will

One of my favorite psychological experiments was conducted by Walter Mischel in the 1960's. What he did was to take a bunch of pre-school kids and put them in a room. He put a cookie on a table in front of them and told them that he had to step out of the room for a few minutes and that the kids had a choice: they could eat the cookie now, or, if they didn't eat the cookie and waited until he got back, they could have two cookies. The vast majority of kids said they'd wait.

Very poor self control. 

Something interesting happened. As time went on, most kids said, "screw it, Imma eat that cookie" (though not in so many well-articulated words). A small number held out however. When Mischel years later checked in on the the kids in the experiment, it turned out that the ability to wait; to delay the gratification of the one cookie now for the two cookies later was the single biggest factor in determining later life success. This single factor was more predictive of higher test scores and performance success than socio-economic status or genetics or any other one thing- being able to wait for a cookie could make you rich.

Now this experiment is a favorite for a couple reasons. First and most important is that this justifies my "Lucky Charms" theory that it is scientifically better to eat all the cereal parts first and then have a few glorious spoonfuls of marshmallow at the end than to it is to eat it all together as the makers intended. Secondly, the experiment means that self-discipline, a skill that can be practiced and internalized, can actually make you perform better as a person. In other words, how you are now doesn't have to be who you are forever- you can be better.

The question is how is this done and, once again, we can turn to Mischel. Mischel noticed something about the kids who could hold out for the second cookie. When they were waiting, those kids didn't just sit there looking at the cookie- they intentionally diverted their attention to other things. Some kids sang "Sesame Street" songs, some repeatedly tied their shoes, some pretended to take naps- they chose to forget about the cookie right in front of them. Those who could willfully choose to occupy their mind with thoughts other than of cookies were able to get the result they wanted.

Author of "How We Decide" Jonah Lehrer describes this as the strategic allocation of attention and is a technique anyone could use. If you are trying to diet, you're naturally going to think about how hungry you are and how you'd really like a pizza instead of a salad. If you can focus your attention on something else- say the football game on TV- you'll be less inclined to think about your cravings and you'll have an easier time sticking with your diet. It also applies to sitting in a lecture. If you consciously focus your attention and chose to not go on facebook where you'll have the temptation to be distracted, focusing on the lecture itself will be much easier. Of course, this is all much easier said than done. That is where newer research comes in.

In 2007, Mathew Galliot and Roy Baumeister discovered that a single act of will power causes depletion of glucose and that, as more acts requiring will power are performed, glucose levels decrease and those acts become harder for the individual. In other words, no one has infinite will power and can always be disciplined all the time. Instead, we have a limited source of will power that decreases over time and needs to be recharged.

This is important for a number of reasons. The first is that you can forgive yourself for not being the super productive person you imagine yourself being because will power relies on chemical processes that aren't infinite. It also means that you can consciously improve will power through two means. The first is to continually "exercise" you will power. Glucose production and depletion is a product of natural processes that can be strengthened or weakened over time. If you never force yourself to do things, it is, purely on a chemical level, harder for you to force yourself to do things when you really need to. If you force yourself to do things all the time, your body will become better at glucose production and use and forcing yourself to do things will become easier over time. Another way to effect this is through conscious habit building. When you perform the same actions routinely, those actions require less will power over time as they become habit. This frees up that energy that would be used for doing those things for other, more important tasks. For example, if it is hard to brush your teeth and floss twice a day, start by forcing yourself to do it when you aren't in a particularly stressful time in your life. Over time, this will become a habit and you'll be able to do it without a second thought. Once stress comes around (during finals time for example), you'll be able to keep up the behavior and still be able to have energy for focusing on your studies. This has the added benefit of exercising your self-control in an easy situation so you'll be stronger for when you really need it.

So, the TL;DR version: willpower is a muscle like anything else. The more you exercise it, the easier it will be to use and the more you can use it to strategically allocate your attention, the more cookies you'll get.