I curate articles from around the web that present an interesting perspective or helpful information at the intersection of behavior design, technology, and wellbeing. Each of these articles were featured in my February 8th, 2023 newsletter. I send out an update twice a month along with some notes on my latest work. Sign up for my newsletter here.
Hi friends,
I'm deep into preparing for the upcoming cohort of Be Your Own Best Coach's latest cohort of Get Things Done without Procrastinating. It's a two-week learning experience that gives you the tools and the mindset to change your behavior based on insights from new research on the science of procrastination.
Working with my Be Your Own Best Coach partner, Dr. Deborah Teplow, we've surfaced a Procrastination Equation that breaks down the anatomy of procrastination. When broken down into the four elements of the equation, procrastination doesn't look as a daunting or shameful.
The four elements that drive the motivation to act or procrastinate are:
Expectancy
Value
Impulsiveness
Delay
Identifying which of these is preventing you from getting things done on time makes the process of tackling procrastination infinitely easier. Combine that with building new habits using the science of behavior design and you have a winning formula that works consistently.
Dr. Teplow does an introduction to the procrastination equation in this video, which is part of the companion video series to the hands-on learning and deliberate practice activities we both lead during the live sessions.
Curious about the program? Learn more here. If you're interested in the course, hit reply, and I'll send you a code to get a discount on the registration cost.
On my media list ...
Sleeping late isn’t a sign of laziness. Stop the circadian-rhythm shaming
Rising early may be seen as the key to success but sleep patterns are mostly genetic & being a night owl is just a biological preference.
"... in health terms, the best-case scenario would be finding ways to adhere to our own body clocks. Instead of trying to match social demands, 'I would much rather [patients] stay on a consistent schedule where they’re going to bed at two and waking up at 10 or 11,'" says Dr Beth Ann Malow, a neurologist and sleep expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Late rising isn't linked to poor mental health or unhappiness, so let's embrace our night owl friends & colleagues.
The Digital Workplace Is Designed to Bring You Down
Digital tools should make our work more efficient but instead they often leave us feeling overwhelmed. The problem is not with technology but with our approach to work. To increase productivity, we must adopt a 'slow productivity' mind-set, minimize context shifts and focus on one task at a time, according to Cal Newport, a Georgetown computer-science professor and the best-selling author of “Deep Work,” “A World Without Email” and “Digital Minimalism.”
"It’s all about getting away from constant checking, because constant context shifting not only makes you miserable, it also makes you worse at doing anything with your brain," Newport said in this New York Times interview. "Office hours is a solution that comes up. You say, Every day at these times, I’m online, my phone’s on, I’m on Zoom, my door’s open. You can defer half a dozen different quick conversations to these office hours. It makes a big difference, because six little conversations might otherwise be 50 to 60 messages, each of which requires relatively quick turnaround. It could make the difference in how much context shifting is going on."