Comment by Fritz_Tegularius on What's the best way to rest? · 2012-06-20T12:17:49.200Z · LW · GW

I'd suggest doing something you enjoy and doing it consciously as a reward for the work you did. Doing boring things might deplete your willpower and is not relaxing.

Comment by Fritz_Tegularius on [link] How habits control our behavior, and how to modify them · 2012-03-01T17:10:11.007Z · LW · GW

Btw., I think that was the "Lifestyle Intervention by Self-Regulation of Action (LISA)" study by Stadler, Oettinger and Gollwitzer 2005. The technique used was Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions.

Comment by Fritz_Tegularius on My Algorithm for Beating Procrastination · 2012-02-10T15:05:34.375Z · LW · GW

Nice idea and map.

Just a note; Mental Contrasting doesn't (mightn't, use what works for you :) increase expectancy (immediately) but increases commitment in case you have high expectancy. It might actually hurt commitment in case of low expectancy, while in that case you could be better of with just fantasizing or looking at what bothers you right now.

Interestingly, you get the same effect with MC when you contrast the "bad future" with the "good present" (e.g. smoking might kill me in future vs. enjoy it now) as vice versa.

(See Oettinger et. al 2010 - Self-regulation to commitment to reduce cigarette consumption: Mental contrasting of future with reality)