Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation

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P165 “Being reminded of your future self puts you in a very broad decision frame. Whatever decision you make today, you should be able to envision making it again and again over many years. So instead of asking yourself whether it’s okay to procrastinate, cheat, smoke, or drink today, you should ask yourself whether it’s okay to do so for the rest of your life. Multiplying a small temptation by the number of times you would succumb to it in the course of your life will surely make it too large to ignore.” The reason that’s the case is that there are special, clearly marked points in time. It’s when you start doing something for longer that it becomes harder to maintain that enthusiasm. This is called the “middle problem.” Social isolation is so unnatural to humans that it's considered a harsh and often cruel and unethical punishment."

ask if you can define your goals in terms of approaching a state of mental comfort instead of avoiding discomfort relationships: understand the aspirations of people around you; make your desires known; share interests Read: How to Procrastinate Less by Increasing Your Motivation and Decreasing Temptations) Leveraging intrinsic motivation for goals i142855418 |b1160003006379 |dvlnf |g- |m |h2 |x2 |t0 |i2 |j70 |k220512 |n12-22-2022 00:45 |o- |a153.8 |rFIS It started well enough, reasonably paced. Plenty of examples and anecdotes and breakdown of the theory behind it all.This is called the “goal gradient effect” in motivation science. It just means that the more progress you’ve made, the more excited you are to continue. Basically, the glass-half-full motivator. Fishbach argues that intrinsic motivation is decreased by extrinsic rewards because of how goals and activities are associated. At first, the goal of intrinsically motivated activities may be enjoyment or self-expression. When you add the reward, the activity becomes associated with getting the reward as well—a second goal. Fishbach argues that having multiple goals associated with an activity dilutes the importance of the activity in working toward the goal. She writes, each additional action has a larger perceived impact on the progress (0-1/10=10%, 6-7/10=25% of remaining) ask yourself why you are committed and confident in your goal; grow your abilities, rather than proving them

P62 “Do you think that you care about how interesting your work is much more than the average person, but that you care about how much you’re paid only somewhat more than the average person? Turns out, that’s generally the case. The tendency for almost everyone to see themselves as above average is more pronounced for intrinsic than extrinsic motivation.”

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This book looks at how how our we tend to look at goals, where the pitfalls are in pursuing a goal, and how we can best keep momentum towards our goal depending on our current progress and commitment levels. The way we sustain our motivation changes as we change. A really good reminder that "long middles" are dangerous--we are excited at the beginning and end, but it is very easy to lose momentum in the middle. Many, many books have been written about goal setting and productivity- more than I can count. It's a popular topic because in our hyper-productive world we all are trying to get more done in less time. It's the sacred cow of productivity that people from housewives to CEO's aspire to, and I have no problem with it as long as there's still room for family, fun, and balance. We waste a lot of our lives pursuing things half-heartedly or giving up before reaching our goals, so books like Get It Done can be very helpful in cutting through the BS and helping us focus on what matters. Setting and achieving goals—at work, at home, and in relationships—is harder than it seems. And while countless books and articles have been written on the subject, most are not penned by serious behavioral scientists at the forefront of this discipline. A great deal of ink has been spilled on the subject of motivating and influencing others, but what happens when the person you most want to influence is you?

This book looks at how how our we tend to look at goals, where the pitfalls are in pursuing a goal, When framed correctly, goals can be powerful motivational tools. To set a goal that’ll pull you to the finish line, keep these three things in mind.

The problems come in when you have two goals in conflict—for instance, eating healthy by only buying organic food, and also staying on budget. Fishbach relates two strategies: First, compromise. You might make progress on all fronts but not satisfy anything completely. Second, prioritize one goal at the cost of the other. She says we tend to compromise when we feel like we've made some amount of sufficient progress. We prioritize when we feel our actions need to express commitment to the goal, when we want our actions to reflect who we are as people, and when we think our actions say something about our identity. Compromising in this case would send a mixed message. There are many problems with this book. The short review is that if you’d like a long lecture from a dishonest, uncreative, Liberal, Jewish-Puritan, this is the book for you. P100 “While most people are enthusiastic and conscientious at the beginning and at the end of goal pursuit, in the middle, both the motivation to get it done and the motivation to do it right tend to suffer.” If you want to achieve your goals, set reasonable goals. Many people set goals that are too abstract ("be happier"), too negative ("stop being addicted to social media"), or too vague ("get fit"). Instead, goals need to be linked to your purpose and your values—ask "why this goal?" for each goal you set. Then provide an answer. She argues, essentially, that activities associated with goals are a zero-sum game. I don't see why that must be the case—why can't an activity be associated with two goals and be equally important for both? Maybe that would work for two intrinsically motivated goals? I wasn't entirely satisfied with her explanation.