Will Power

Ego Depletion

You have very little Will Power and cognitive thinking capacity. Ration it well. Plan in advance. Don’t expect it to last forever.

The What-the-Hell effect

I’m not thinking at the margin when I just give up on the whole day just because I can’t make my five hours of work. I’m thinking in terms of stories - either a day has 5 hours of good work or it’s shit. Instead, I need to ask myself: what is the best way to spend the next one hour - watch more videos on Youtube or do some meaningful work?

That’s the mistake I made when I set my personal goal as “do 5 hours of practice per day” instead of “do as much practice as you can”. I’m not thinking in terms of a score, like in a game, that I must maximize by any means possible. I’m thinking in terms of stories - maximize the number of days for which I’ve done 5 hours of practice.