J.D. Roth over at Get Rich Slowly writes today about how he uses mental tricks to outsmart himself and thus resist irresistible temptations.
Yes, I’m sure some folks whose souls shine with character and resolution think it’s silly. But hey, whatever works.
I know I use mental tricks or “bargains with myself” not only to resist temptations, but to talk myself into doing things I would otherwise procrastinate over. “If you get to work on that article by 8:00, you can stop at noon and take the rest of the day off.”
I also use tricks to aid memory. If I don’t have a notepad with me or I have my hands full and I get a sudden flash about something I need to to — a call I must make, an errand I must run — I’ll look around, see a common household item (something highly visible; often something out of place) and say, “That receipt from the grocery store will remind me to email Barbara,” or “That paint brush on the counter will remind me I need to pay the electric bill.” Amazingly, it works.
So do you have mental tricks you play on yourself or do you use mental bargains with yourself to get things done? If so, care to share?
It would be especially great to hear tips and tricks that help folks improve money matters, preparedness, or freedom. The big things.
I use the “up day, down day” diet trick. One day you eat only 600 calories. Count em! The next day you eat normally.
A little secret: you can eat pretty much all the non-starchy vegetables you want and stay below 600 calories. No carbs, plus a bit of protein and fat on lean days, but mostly veggies.
As my doctor pointed out after I lost 25 lbs, if you eat 600 calories on odd days and 2400 calories on even days, the average is 1500 calories, and most people will lose weight fairly quickly on 1500 calories a day.
The trick is that the up/down diet makes it much easier to resist temptation. Instead of saying “I can have that treat in x weeks after I finish this diet,” you say “I can have that tomorrow if I still want it.” Willpower is a lot more effective for a day or less than for weeks and months at a time.
I leave notes or reminders to myself by the back door, since that’s the one I go out. Also, there’s a calendar there for things that need to be done by a certain date. There’s also a basket nearby for things that need to be mailed-bills go there as well.
I think everyone makes mental bargains with themselves-I do. I usually like to get the unpleasant jobs out of the way first,saving the easier ones for last.
“folks whose souls shine with character and resolution”
This describes me perfectly as long as there’s no food, wine, woman, or anything necessary to do.
I’ve used tricks my entire life to get by. My best tool is avoidance. Stay out of the mega media store when I want a new computer. Intereseted in an evil little waitress down at the local wine bar? DON’T GO! Need to get the bills done? STAY HOME!
If I want to purchase something, I avoid an instantaneous purchase as much as possible. If I see something I want and had not planned to buy, I try and wait 3 days before making the purchase. That way I make sure it is something I really need/want. More times than not I did not really want the item– it was the “oohhh, shiny!” factor.
If I buy clothing, I have to come up with three different ways I can wear the item with clothes I already have. This expands my wardrobe and keeps those “ohh, shiny” moments from filling my closet with crap I don’t have anything to wear with it.
If I don’t have money I can spare, I stay away from stores and online shops. By not being there, I won’t spend the dough. I treat myself with a book from the library, knitting time, playing a game, a cup of lovely tea at home instead.
I also use mental bargains to talk myself out of the on the spur latte purchases. They add up fast, and with a coffee stand on every corner they are hard to resist if you like them (and I LIKE them!). I think of all the things I could spend that $5 on, and talk myself into waiting until I get home to make a latte or a cup of tea. I also make a mental note of all the crap in the store bought lattes, if they have flavoring, and my home made one is better for me.
I just went over and read J.D.’s post. Lol– I not only understand his logic, I can relate to his allergies =(. Poor guy!
I often email myself, especially regarding my second job. Since I’m not there as often (and I write most of the articles for the office blog), if I need to remember something or see something of interest when not there, I email it to myself at my work address. Works wonderfully! I also email my hours for any work I do out of the office, because I will forget how much I’ve done before I’m in again.
I also keep everything on a calendar on my phone– when I am scheduled to work, when bills are due, appts, things I want to look forward to– and set up reminders. With bills, I keep two calendars, just in case one fails.
I also added a notepad app to my phone, and I jot myself notes on it. Or, if it too long to jot (like a recipe or info on a book I’d like to check out) I snap a photo of it to refer to later.
What does not work for me are chore reminder lists. Not sure why. If I write myself a to-do list, that works. Maybe because I bargain with myself to get it done =).
–Write to-do notes for the day or week, and cross them off as they’re done.
–Use a spreadsheet for all purchases; food, rent, gasoline, sales tax, EVERYTHING gets written down, and totalled up at the end of the month so I know if I stayed within my budget or not.
–Save all change I get back from every purchase, put it in coin rollers, and use it for either a special item I want, or for emergency needs.
–Get cash from the bank for groceries and gas every two weeks, and try to keep within that amount. (Hard to do these days when prices keep going up daily; it does stretch the imagination at times to stay within limits.)
–Make lists of groceries to buy, and stay out of all other aisles.
–Stopped putting food in the fridge/pantry if I don’t want to eat it; and only buy single quantities of certain things once a month (such as dark chocolate candy bar). My weakness is processed fats — deli foods, cheeses, ice cream, cheesecake, bacon, sausage, sauces, etc. I’ve found that eating more “whole foods” (meat, fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans), and eating/cooking with yogurt, has helped decrease my appetite for the things I shouldn’t eat. I’ve had two vanilla Dixie cups in the freezer for four weeks, and haven’t wanted them yet. I keep them there in case I’m tempted to buy bulk ice cream.
–I stay away from “impulse” stores (Walmart, hardware, office, pharmacy, bookstore) unless I have something specific to buy. Bookshops are especially hard: I used to be a great browser, and could in fact browse for an hour and never buy a book. Now I can’t resist anything.
–And, I’ve had to stop “browsing” Amazon for the same reason.
I think my will power has decreased with age. I don’t try to resist as much any more.
EN — You’re a hoot. And yes, I agree that STAYING AWAY! is a great start. While I’ve never been tempted by any evil little waitress, I find that I can go weak in the knees just from the temptations offered by a typical grocery store.
Yeah … character and resolution … sigh.
Lots of good suggestions!
I think it might have been Claire that wrote about her secret money envelope tricks, it was long ago and I know it was on here (BH) somewhere……I totally put that into action…..
I am lost if I don’t write things down as they come to mind…the trouble with that is a tornado of little pieces of paper/post it notes all over the place…..one year while digging thru the yearly school supply sale bins I had an aha moment and picked up different colors of notebooks (or subject books or even just small bound pads)….each color had it’s own category, to kept it organized….My “trick” (if you want to call it that) was if I went to add to the list I had to do one to eliminate it….Otherwise I was just ending up with some long lists….
Those of us who live on commission or random paychecks constantly play the common/usual money tricks….Procrastinating always requires mental bargaining ~ which I cut down considerably by simply saying “what if I die tonite/tomorrow, would I want this left like this?” or it’s twin “what if I can no longer get this tonite/tomorrow/ever again?”….I know that sounds morbid, but it works for me…..
I’m still figuring out how tricks and bargains can be applied in any freedom situation…..
Ummm, for freedom tricks, I ask myself “What would Claire say about this?”
Well as mentioned before my daily routines already involve eating previously unthinkable ammounts ammounts of high calorie food…and I go after evil little baristas with even greater veracity.
My vices tend go together…like smoking and pulp fiction. (Not the movie, low-brow literature. But you knew that…). So I try to keep my exposure to cigar shops and anyplace that sells printed paper fairly limited. Theres other stuff too…gear and stuff that I could never convince myself I don’t need right off hand.
Also I try to leave the house on a full stomach (or bring something) so I don’t end up paying for convenince to get fast food. That’s a big one…
Winston reminded me of something extremely important to avoid. GEAR and GUNS. I avoid gun stores. I have all the guns I need but sometimes that stainless steel 16 inch barreled .308 with the laminated stock calls to me like water to a thirsty man. Do I need this gun? NOPE! Do I have that one credit card only to be used for emergencies? “Yeeeesssss”, it whispers so softly, like Galadriel on a quiet Elven night, “Why are you so afraid to use the card?” More avoidance. NO CREDIT CARDS. Being poor and loving nice things dictates that credit cards be cast into the pits of hell. Major avoidance.
Back in the Grim, Dark Days of Residency (I’m outing myself a bit here) I played a mind game on myself practically every night I was on call…
You hear a lot about young-doctors-being-forced-to-work-for-days-on-end-without-sleep-and-making-mistakes-that-get-people-killed, but in point of fact, it’s largely rubbish. You can’t so much as go pee without notifying a senior resident (who tells the Attending on call, who then approves of which restroom you can use) much less make a critical medical decision without supervision.
That, however, is cold comfort when you’ve already put in a full day’s work, you’ve just completed your eighth admission of the night, it’s after 4 am and you’re due in Morning Report at 7:00 sharp. Your hand is on the call room door and you’re finally going to get a couple of hours sleep…
…. and the Little Black Box of Pain goes off, telling you it’s the ER with another ICU admit.
People often ask how you can stay awake for two days straight. It’s really very easy when you don’t have any choice. You are the resident on call and this is your responsibility. Your Senior and Attending are there to make sure you don’t screw up, but the work is all yours to do. And yes, there are lives riding on it.
Tonight, you’re not going to see those blessed hospital sheets (laundered in something that makes straight lye look like your wife’s bath salts) or lay your head on the crackly plastic pillow case in the call room before going instantly comatose. You won’t even have time to don a fresh set of scrubs or brush your teeth before you’re back in the saddle for another 12 or so hours of medical enlightenment. No, you’re going right back to the ER, right now, so you can obtain a history, review labs, conduct a physical, order more tests, run the case past your Senior and the Attending, write your admit notes and orders, and get this patient into the ICU so you can fret over the monitors, lines and ventilator settings as the sun rises and that last chance for sleep fades away with the sunrise.
Somewhere along the way, it comes to you: “That’s it… when I get done with this admit and Morning Report, I’m cutting out on my rotation. I’m going to tell my Attending that I have to fill in at the Residency Clinic or that I have a lecture to attend or something. They’ll never check, but I’ll head up to one of the other call rooms, crash for a couple of hours just in case they call me and then head home early.”
I told myself that dozens of times in residency. I love to sleep and the mere promise of being able to sleep, of having that option, got me through the night.
I never cut out the next day. By then I was exhausted past words and good for very little, but I could count down the hours left by the light of day and I’d be home by 5 or 6 pm.
What I learned from all this is that recognizing the reality that you still have choices and that you’re still in control of something can carry you through a lot.
I’ve never had to face the horror that James Stockdale endured in the Hanoi Hilton or the unending misery of the Gulag that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn survived, but I caught a faint glimpse of how it might be done.
For that, I can say I am grateful.