A Special Device to Fight Temptations

It’s the year 1500 BCE, and somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea we find Ulysses, the Greek hero, tied to his own ship’s mast. He’s trying desperately to free himself. Threatening, cajoling, and begging his crew to untie him. But they can’t even hear his pleas, for they have wax in their ears.

Deadly Sirens, beautiful women with bird like features, sing a song so sweet that no human can resist. But from the great heap of dead men’s bones lying around, it is clear what becomes of those who wander too close.

Ulysses knew of the perils of the Sirens and their song, but he had to hear their voices anyways. Clever as he was, he instructed his men to bind him to the ship’s mast and to tighten the ropes whenever he begged to be released.

We call this the Ulysses Contract.

Fast forward 3500 years and the term “Siren Song” applies to any temptation that is enticing but ultimately bad for you. Just like Ulysses, we need to find a way of tying ourselves to the mast if we want to avoid becoming a victim of the Sirens.

21st Century Ropes

In the heat of the moment, it’s very easy to make a decision that goes against our plans. We need to use some sort of commitment device to hold ourselves to our decision whenever we find ourselves gripped by passion or emotion.

Here’s a few examples of a rope to keep ourselves tied to the mast, but for the 21st century.

Dan Ariely, Prof. B Duke of Behavioral Economics and advisor to Fabulous, has collected several interesting precommitment anecdotes from regular people. For example, one student of his would keep their credit card frozen in a block of ice. Whenever they wanted to purchase something they’d take it out of the freezer to let it thaw, forcing themselves to take some time to consider the purchase rationally.

One study that looked into how people save money found something interesting. The world’s most successful savers aren’t just stingy people, but they did have one thing in common.

Most have a system of automatically saving money that doesn’t depend on willpower, such as automatic transfers to a savings account each month.

I have my debit card setup to deposit $3 into my savings account every time I make a purchase of any size, this keeps me from spending as much (everything's $3 more expensive) and helps me save loads.

In his book “Tools of Titans”,  Tim Ferriss talks about a friend of his who was a comedian struggling with open-mic nights.

His friend would work up the courage to perform a routine, but since he was only a beginner, his jokes failed to get more than a chuckle or two. He knew he needed to practice, but it took 3 months to work up the courage to get back on stage.

But when he started booking shows a week in advance, things turned around. By booking the act long before stagefright could set in, he was making a commitment to the comedy club that he couldn’t back out of.

This way he didn’t have to force himself to go to the comedy club every night to see whether he felt brave enough that night or not. By the time he had to perform, he couldn’t back out anymore.

“I was really bad for a while, but let’s say you do 20 jokes and 3 of them get pity laughs, those are the 3 you keep. And then, after a while, 1 of them always does well, that’s your opener. And now 2 of them do very well, you have a closer. It evolves this way”. BJ

How to Tie Yourself to a Pole:

I used to struggle with the dreaded snooze button. I would promise myself before going to bed that I would jump right up and stay up. But as soon as my alarm would sound…

Snooze-time

My bed-headed morning self refused to see the logic I had so clearly known a few hours before. I valued an extra 5 minutes of sweep slumber more than life itself, not to mention my morning workout.

So what did I do? I tied myself to the mast. I put my alarm clock in the bathroom so I’d have to get up to turn it off.

But that’s only one example, here are a few to get your brain juices flowing:

• Before going out to eat, look up the menu online and pick a healthy option

• If you’re going shopping, only bring a limited amount of cash and no credit cards

• Schedule a run or visit to the gym with your best friend at the same time every morning, you can keep each other accountable. Or, hire a personal trainer so you have to go lift weights

• To make sure you don’t get distracted while you’re working, download a program that blocks certain sites and apps. I use FocusMe but there are many different ones for Windows, MacOS, Chrome, Android, iOS

• Set your Wi-Fi to turn off at a certain time at night to keep you from staying up too late

• Make an “Electronics Prison” for your phone and laptop; it can be a bin or a drawer. An hour before bedtime, sentence your electronics to 1 night in the slammer. Don’t let them out early for good behaviour.

• Call your bank to see if they have an automatic savings program that will automatically save some money every month

When possible, automate your commitment devices. This makes them much more powerful. Set them up once and then you’ll forever be better off.

This Week’s Plan

This week, we have a one-time action and a goal for you

One-Time Action

Get a nice notebook to use as a daily planner/To-Do list. It’s important to write things down on paper instead of just keeping things saved somewhere in your laptop.

In a study comparing writing by pen and typing on a computer, writing by pen was much more efficient in making you remember the information.

If you have a plan written in a notebook, you will keep referring back to it. If it’s lost in the sea of information on your laptop, it’ll be much too easy to forget about and then you’ll lose track of what it is you need to be focusing on.

Your Goal

For the next week, Adjust and Commit to your Plans every day. This simply means that after you’ve woken up and completed your performance statement, you will take a quick look at your day’s plan and think about the 3 most important things you need to get done that day. Then, design a Ulysses Contract to ensure you complete them.

While adjusting, answer these two questions in your notebook:

1. What are the 3 most important things I must do today?

2. What Commitment Devices can I create to make sure I follow through?

It’s important to physically write your plans down.

Writing it down on paper will make the plan concrete and easy to remember, and in case you forget or get distracted, you can always look back at your notebook

Schedule and write down a 2-3 hour block of time where you can focus solely on these tasks to get them done.

Be wary of “Task Blindness”. This is when you put off a dreaded task day after day, and soon you accept that it’s ok to postpone it. This is why you have to adjust your plans.

Now, are you ready to tackle the next step in your Journey towards self-discipline?

Now concerning Commitment Devices

A commitment device can be as simple as starting a piece of the work right away, even if it’s only for a few minutes.

You can also put a sticky note on your Laptop so that the day's biggest task is right there in front of you.

You can also use an app like Freedom or FocusMe to block certain websites like Facebook or Twitter, or even block everything except the sites you need. You can also schedule these work sessions in advance so you won’t even have to think about it.

You could simply send a quick email to someone who you’re planning to have a weekly study session with. A simple email can start the process and keep you committed.

Whenever you can, take some time to remove any possible distractions ahead of time, like putting your phone in Do Not Disturb mode. Even the sound of a new Facebook notification can wreak havoc on your attention and self-discipline.

Even just wondering what the message could be diverts your attention from the task at hand, even if you don’t check it. It’s better to not even have to confront the temptation.

Why are we learning this?

The Ulysses Contract is a powerful commitment device. Mind Weeds can be fought through meditation, Performance Statements, but also with commitment devices.

We all have tasks we’ve been procrastinating on for a long time. We sometimes fall into “Task Blindness” where we keep postponing the task from one day to the next.

Using a commitment device and a daily readjustment will help you get those tasks done.