Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation

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Neither strategy is necessarily better or worse – but it is useful to be able to know when to implement one over the other. The word “we” suffers intense abuse in this book. The author writes “we do abc”; “we like def”; and “we avoid xyz.” But in her use of “we” she really means most people. She should write “most people.” I hate zucchini. I mean I really hate it. If 99% of people love zucchini, this author would write “we love zucchini.” The hell we do. I’m not a part of the group called “we” when it comes to zucchini. When using the word “we,” all authors should use this Zucchini Test. Any idea failing this test calls for the use of a few more words, “most of us” or “most people,” etc. This test is especially important when we think of cultural differences. The author writes as though all people act as the educated class does in the U.S. and Europe. This generality is carried throughout the book. About the Author Ayelet Fishbach, PhD, is the Jeffrey Breakenridge Keller Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and the past president of the Society for the Study of Motivation.

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. Coming up with the goal is the easy part. The hard part comes with putting the goal into action and sustaining motivation during the slow or hard parts. To get over the agonizing middle when most goals fall flat, the author recommends these strategies: This book looks at how how our we tend to look at goals, where the pitfalls are in pursuing a goal, Read: How to Procrastinate Less by Increasing Your Motivation and Decreasing Temptations) Leveraging intrinsic motivation for goals 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.i142164707 |b31813006457054 |dbelow |g- |m231208 |h8 |x6 |t2 |i5 |j300 |k220228 |n09-13-2023 15:29 |o- |a153.8 FISHBACH The small area principle helps people know what to focus on when motivation lags in the middle. Emphasizing what you've already accomplished works best when you're in the early part of your journey. Looking ahead to the unfinished business ahead can be demotivating. But once you get closer to the goal, looking ahead can switch over to become very motivating. Think of the long distance runner who knows the finish line is just minute away- they get energized by the proximity of it! But earlier in the race is not the time to focus on that finish line. Social isolation is so unnatural to humans that it's considered a harsh and often cruel and unethical punishment."

When I first studied behavioral economics 30 years ago, I often thought, “This is just economists trying to figure out what we already know in advertising.” Today, I think behavioral economists have gotten further away from understanding people how think. Economists have become a lot like mathematicians studying string theory. They spend more and more of their time talking about things that only matter to their academic colleagues, with little application to the real world, and with experiments that don’t prove a thing but are only interpretive events, a sort of intellectual dancing. Expensive coffees have been demonized as the reason people aren’t saving enough money. Some joke that lattes and avocado toast are the reasons millennials can’t buy houses, and yet: here we are buying our flat whites and lattes. You know why? Because they feel like a reward, whether it’s for the sometimes arduous task of getting out of bed or for having a productive morning of work. I’m sure we can always find a good reason. Trying to stay motivated and make serious progress in whatever you’re trying to achieve in life can sometimes feel like an impossible task. But it doesn’t have to be. There’s a simple fix – and it just so happens to be in your control. It all starts with changing your circumstances. Most importantly, you need to define your goals. You need to pay attention to maintaining momentum, stay focused when you’ve got a billion other things on your plate and get your friends and family involved. And when you make your behavior and environment work for rather than against you, your goal of getting that raise, or that strong healthy body, or that tax return form sorted, or that new language learned, will be yours in no time! It’s a surprising anecdote to be offered by an expert in the realm of setting and achieving goals, but her message gets right to the heart of one of the deceptively simple lessons in her book: choose your goals wisely. Here’s another example. Imagine you’re doing yoga. You’re at home, on your mat. And while you’re in downward dog you come eye to eye with a giant dust ball. Maybe that’s the last straw. Maybe it’s at this point that you realize it’s actually been forever since you’ve last cleaned. And so, you get up and whip out the vacuum cleaner. Right. Now. In this case, your sense of falling behind ended up motivating action.

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There are ways to dial up the intrinsic motivation factor on goals that are important to you. For example, when it comes to exercise, you can choose a workout that is fun. Fishbach described a study in which she had asked a group of people in a gym to choose an exercise based on how much they enjoyed it and asked another group of gym-goers to choose one based on how important it was that they do a particular exercise. She found that those who chose based on enjoyment worked out longer. Fishbach includes chapters about self-control and patience. Her strategies for increasing self-control and managing temptations were fantastic, and I've included many in my article explaining ways to procrastinate less. In short, self-control is a two-step process: detect or become aware of temptations, and then battle them. Fishbach writes, So how do you motivate yourself to pursue your dreams and desires when life is in full swing? It all starts with choosing the right goal. 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. 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.

Professor Thaler: please note here that your colleague points out that your students would value quite highly an autographed book by you, even one that you start off by describing your reaction upon hearing that your friend has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. :(Ayelet Fishbach, PhD, is a psychologist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. The former president of the Society for the Study of Motivation, she’s published over a hundred scientific articles, given talks around the world, and been featured in media outlets like the New York Times and NPR. Her research on human motivation won the Fulbright Educational Foundation Award. Table of Contents While making progress is important, how you monitor it also matters. The question is: Should you focus on how much you’ve already done, or how much you still have left to do? The short answer is: both.