Willpower: How to Overcome Decision Fatigue and Commit to Your Habits

“If only I had more willpower”.

“I can’t will myself to do it”.

“My willpower is too low”.

There are a lot of excuses people use when asked to provide reasons why they haven’t built (and more importantly) committed to new habits, but none are more common than their blaming of willpower (or a lack thereof).

In fact, in one a recent survey (by the American Psychological Association of Annual Stress in America Survey), the number one reason participants provided for not achieving their goals, was a lack of willpower. [1]

It’s a given: If you want to build and commit to new habits in the long-term, in the beginning, you have to rely on a willpower to (at least, before it becomes automatised).

However, people become dependent on it and when they do, if, one day, their willpower is low, it become an excuse not to do their habit and all of their hard work can begin to unravel.

Therefore, in order to use willpower to your advantage, it’s important you understand what willpower is, how it works and more importantly, what can weaken it and how you can prevent it.

The Problem with Willpower

Your willpower is your ability to say “no” to your impulses. If you want to actualise your goals, you have to be able to delay gratification.

But your willpower is used for more than resisting temptations, in fact: You exert your willpower on a daily basis and often, without even knowing.

Your willpower is used with every decision you make. Replying to emails, laughing at a co-worker’s unfunny joke and deciding what breakfast cereal to buy, all account for using willpower.

But here’s the rub: Your willpower is a limited resource and the more you use it, the less you have of it. If you use it on making unimportant decisions, it can leave you open to temptations.

Your willpower is actually analogous to a muscle, the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes, but excessive use can leave it fatigued.

What is often labelled as a behavioural problem (“I don’t have willpower”) is actually a situational problem (“My willpower is low because I had a difficult day”). This is known as decision fatigue (or ego depletion) and is one of the most commons reasons people lose momentum when building new habits.

When you become decision fatigued, you’re more likely to return to the behaviours that are the most familiar to you and require the least amount of will to do – like drinking alcohol, eating unhealthily and watching television.

The Radish Experiment

In one study, 67 hungry college students were invited into a room where they were met with the delicious aroma of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies. [2]

They sat down and were met with three choices: the freshly-baked cookies, chocolate and a bowl of radishes.

Some of the students were invited to eat the cookies and chocolate. The unlucky ones were assigned to radish duty: No treats, just radishes.

To maximise temptation, the researchers left the students alone with the cookies and radishes, and observed them through a small window.

The ones in the radish condition clearly struggled with temptation.

Many gazed longingly at the cookies before settling down to bite reluctantly into a radish.

Some of them picked up a cookie and smelled it, savouring the pleasure of freshly baked chocolate, but nobody actually bit into the forbidden fruit.

It showed that the cookies were really quite tempting and that people needed to summon up their willpower to resist them.

Then the students were taken to another room and given geometry puzzles to work on.

The students thought they were being tested for cleverness, but really, the puzzles were insolvable.

The test was to see how long they’d work before giving up.

The students who’d been allowed to eat chocolate chip cookies and candy typically worked on the puzzles for about 20 minutes, as did the control group of students who were also hungry but hadn’t been offered food of any kind.

However, the sorely tempted radish eater gave up after eight minutes – a huge difference by the standards of laboratory experiments.

They’d successfully resisted the temptation of the cookies and the chocolates, but the effort left them with less energy to tackle the puzzles.

How to Maximise Your Willpower

The following are four ways you can conserve your willpower in order to better ensure you stick to building new habits:

01. Prioritise Your Most Important Habits to Earlier In The Day

In her book, The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters and What You Can Do to Get More of It, Kelly McGonigal explains:

Researchers have found that self-control is highest in the morning and steadily deteriorates over the course of the day. [3]

There will be times when you miss your cue to do your habit and will need to will yourself to do them instead. (Read more about “The Habit Loop” here)

With that said, take your habits that require the most effort (such as going to the gym) and do them as early in the morning as possible.

If, in the event you have a difficult day and experience decision fatigue, you won’t have to worry about willing yourself to do them.

02. Use Routines to Free Up Your Decision-Making

New Your Times best-selling author Ramit Sethi recently commented on The James Altucher Show how he will automise as many of his daily habits as he can – from his financial commitments to what to wears – leaving him more room for spontaneity and to focus on what’s most important.

Deciding what to route to drive home, what emails to reply to first and what to order for lunch all contribute to decision fatigue, but the more you ritualise, the less you have to consider and the more you can reserve your willpower for important decisions like what change you want to make in your life.

03. Commit to Schedules Instead of Decisions

People often comment: “I’ve decided: I’m going to (insert new habit here) when I find the time”. The problem with making a decision like that is, if/when that arbitrary time becomes available, they don’t know how they’re going to feel. If they feel demotivated, they’re going to rely on their willpower – and we’ve already learnt how ineffective that can be.

However, if you commit to a schedule, how you feel becomes irrelevant – and you do what you need to do anyway.

Think about it: You never have to will yourself to go to your job because it relies on a schedule. All you have to concern yourself with is what time to arrive. You don’t have to motivate yourself to go.

You could argue: “I don’t like my job; I do have to motivate myself” and that perhaps that’s true, but you have a choice. Entrepreneurs know this: If they only worked when they felt like it, they’d never get anything done.

I don’t always feel like writing, but knowing I have a schedule to write every Monday and Thursday motivates me to take action. I want to be consistent and by having a schedule, I always get my writing done on time.

04. Ensure You Sleep Well and Eat Correctly

Research in Roy Baumeister’s book Willpower: Rediscovering Our Greatest Strength, argues willpower like a muscle can be exercised and made stronger.

This can be done by sleeping well (7-9 hours of sleep a night) and having adequate glucose in your blood stream by eating foods that are healthy for us.

Other research has also found that meditation can help you minimise impulses, leaving you to rely less on willpower. [4]

A Final Word

If you want to maximise your willpower and not fall prey to decision fatigue, you need to exercise your willpower but in moderation. Make decisions, but don’t overdo it.

If you’re having willpower failures in one area of your life, but not others, look for the “bright spots” – the areas where you are getting results.

How can you begin to conserve your willpower?

Sources

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