How to outsmart your brain and start taking care of your future

Why we undermine our own well-being

Psychologist Hal Hershfield wondered why people aren't saving for retirement. Life expectancy has increased, so it is logical that more money will be needed for a comfortable existence after leaving work. Yet the average American 15 years away from retirement only saves one-third of what is needed to maintain their current standard of living. People spend money today, worsening their well-being in the future.

To explain the reasons for this behavior, Hershfield and colleagues conducted an experiment during which they scanned the brains of participants. At the same time, they were asked how such qualities as honest or funny are applicable to them now and in the future. And also how much they correspond to another person now and to another person in the future. Scientists noted which part of the brain "lights up" during the response.

Unsurprisingly, the brain was most active when participants were thinking about themselves in the present, and least of all when they were thinking about other people. But it is interesting that the brain activity when thinking about oneself in the future was very similar to what happened when people thought not about themselves, but about others.

It turns out that when we imagine ourselves in a month, a year or 10 years, the brain captures this person in almost the same way as it would capture Taylor Swift or the driver in a passing car.

From this perspective, saving for retirement is like giving money to a stranger. We act in our own interests, so giving up savings seems completely logical.

Such findings can reassure chronic procrastinators. It turns out that the tendency to postpone things for later is not a moral defect, but a feature of the nervous system. Our brains are designed to primarily care about the present. On the other hand, this further complicates the pursuit of long-term goals: after all, you need to fight not with a lack of willpower, but with your own biology.

If we perceive our future self as a stranger, self-destructive actions take on meaning. Naturally, we watch the series instead of training, go to social networks instead of writing an article, or agree to an interesting project for which we definitely won't have enough time.

We get a concrete and immediate positive result, and someone completely different will suffer from the hypothetical consequences. Although in reality it is ourselves in the future.

We often take on too many commitments. Think, for example, how you agreed to something despite a fully loaded schedule. You may have been prompted by anticipation of an interesting challenge or social pressure. In any case, it seemed to you that your abilities and motivation would somehow grow in the future. But when it’s time to make a promise, you’re still thinking about the comfort in the moment, not the consequences.

It seems to us that tomorrow everything will be different and we will be different. But because of this, we again put our mood in the present first, and not the consequences of inaction that we will face in the future. This leads to psychological and sometimes physical discomfort. We create our own stress, anxiety and fear of failure. The result is what the writer Steven Pressfield calls resistance.

“We don't say to ourselves, 'I will never write a symphony,'” he explains in his book The War for Creativity. “We say, 'I'll write a symphony, but I'll start tomorrow.'By thus transferring discomfort from ourselves in the present to ourselves in the future, we experience immediate relief.

Of course, the future self inevitably becomes the real self, and we have to deal with what we have been putting off. And also with the accumulated feelings of guilt and anxiety. We find ourselves in a vicious circle. To break out of it, Doist blog author Becky Kane offers three strategies.

How to deal with stress and guilt

1. Force your future self to do what you don’t want to do now

First, you have a serious advantage: you know your weaknesses and can predict how you will think and act in the future. This means that you can oppose yourself. Don't expect to magically have motivation and willpower tomorrow. Expect the worst of yourself.

Secondly, do everything to make it easier for yourself:

If you want to save money, connect the monthly automatic transfer of money to your savings account. Then you won't have free money to spend on nonsense.
If you're looking for a healthy diet, keep healthy snacks on hand at all times. Prepare food for the week ahead on Sunday, and freeze a few servings in case of emergency.
Need to start a project that has been postponed for a long time? Prepare everything you need in the evening. For example, in the morning you want to finish your article. Then in the evening close all unnecessary tabs in the browser, leaving only the document with the text.

Of course, this does not guarantee the absence of procrastination. Try to insure yourself additionally:

If, while working at the computer, you are often distracted on social networks, install an extension that limits the time on such sites. For example,.
If you want to exercise in the morning, but you find it difficult to get yourself out of bed, set an alarm that forces you to solve math problems (Puzzle Alarm Clock) or scan a barcode (Barcode Alarm).
Need to save money? Unsubscribe from all discount mailings and block sites where you often buy.
If you want to play sports, report to a friend or sign up for a joint activity and pay for it. Cost and social pressure will help keep you from skipping workouts.

And remember: nothing is more motivating than a good old deadline. Install it and choose backfire in case of delay.

2. Convince yourself in the present that you in the future are all the same you

Hershfield continued his research. He wanted to test what would help people think more about the future and save for retirement. In a new experiment, he and his colleagues photographed the participants and visually aged their faces in a photo editor. Then the subjects were placed in a virtual reality environment, where they looked in a mirror and saw their aging face. After that, they said they would save 30% more than the control group, who were not reminded of old age.

You can repeat this experiment using the AgingBooth app (iOS, Android), but there are other ways to bring the present and future self closer together.

For example, write a letter to yourself in the future. According to research, those who wrote a letter to themselves in 20 years did more sports in the following days than those who wrote to themselves in three months.

Another option is to bring the future closer. When we think about upcoming events in days rather than years, it seems to us that they will come sooner. This was confirmed by an experiment. Participants who thought about retirement in days (10,950 days) rather than years (30 years) started saving four times faster.

Writer Tim Urban went even further. He broke 90-year life into days and made a calendar.

Our present and future lives: Tim Urban's calendar

This image helps you understand how short life is. Here's what to do to remind yourself how little actually separates you from you today, years later:

Write a letter from your future self. Imagine what your life will be like in a few decades and what will be important to you.
Set deadlines for goals in weeks, days, or even hours.
Visualize the path to the goal in the form of a table, where each square is one day. Circle the elements that represent important milestones. Each evening, write down what you did for the day, and cross out the box.
In the morning, imagine that you are completely satisfied with the past day. Think about what business will give you this feeling, and start with it.

3. Use Instant Rewards to Your Benefit

When choosing goals, we usually focus on long-term results: lose weight, get a raise, learn a skill. While these goals are inspiring, they do little to help you complete the necessary steps day after day. To do this, it is more useful to reformulate your actions in terms of instant gratification.

“We conducted a survey and asked people about their goals at the beginning of the year,” said marketer Kaitlin Woolley and psychologist Ayelet Fishbach. - The majority sets goals, the benefits of which will not be felt soon: career growth, paying off debts, improving health. We asked how much it is pleasant for people to move towards their goal and how important it is for them. After two months, we found out if they are continuing in the same spirit. It turned out that the pleasure of striving for the goal helps much more than its importance."

In achieving goals, the pleasure of the process is more important than the benefits in the long term. Use this to motivate yourself.

For example:

To play sports, do not think that in six months you will have a perfect body. Find a sport that gives you pleasure and focus on the pleasant sensations and good mood that it brings now.
Don't push yourself to study to get good grades. Choose subjects that interest you and enjoy the learning process itself.
Send emails to customers not to meet your monthly or annual sales targets, but to shut down your computer at the end of each day without feeling guilty. Or turn productivity into a game.
Combine boring tasks with something enjoyable. For example, with a trip to your favorite coffee shop, an interesting podcast, or a delicious snack.

How to beat procrastination

Think about your most important goal 20 years from now. If nothing comes to mind, write a letter from yourself in the future. Highlight the main achievement in a prominent place.
Make a list of specific actions that will bring you closer to your goal. For example, if you want to write a book, determine the number of words you need to write in a day. Add every deadline activity to your calendar or task tracker.
Write down everything that you want to do instead of the necessary thing. Go to social networks, reply to mail, and so on. For each item on this list, come up with a strategy to avoid distractions. For example, block social media pages, set aside some time to parse mail.
Make a list of ideas that will help automate the required actions or make them easier to complete. Incorporate them into your daily routine. Add recurring tasks to your calendar.
Promise to move towards your goal, better publicly, then you will feel obligated. Think of the consequences that you will have to put up with if you do not fulfill the condition.
Count the number of working days or hours until the deadline. Mark them on a sticker and stick them in a prominent place, remembering to update regularly.
Write down any quick rewards from your actions that are necessary to achieve your goal. Try to enjoy the process.

It is difficult for us to make decisions about what to spend time and money on, what to eat, how often to exercise. Therefore, there cannot be one simple answer to how to deal with procrastination. But by understanding the cognitive distortion that prevents you from seeing yourself in the future as you do yourself in the present, you will take one step closer to your goals.