Most people don’t procrastinate. They just don’t care about their future self.
There is a study by Hal Hershfield that clearly shows that people usually see themselves in the future as a different person, and that actually affects many parts of their lives.
The paper introduces the concept of Future Self-Continuity (FSC) - how much you feel connected to your future self.
Not so long ago, I wrote about a part of the brain that is related to willpower. You do something even if you don't like it and train it to do even more such things. This paper is related to that topic - you do chores/learning/training/etc. not for someone else, but for yourself, and that's really hard, especially if that part of your brain is not trained.
I usually work out 4 times a week, and there are days (I wish it were fewer than more) when you don't want to train because you have so many things to do, but you do it exactly because, without that, eventually you will feel like shit.
Or let's take another example - you save/invest not for some person in the future, but for yourself, because otherwise your retirement will be overcomplicated exactly because of your actions right now. Buying something today feels satisfying (for a tiny period); saving for retirement feels abstract and distant.
The paper suggests 3 simple levers:
1️⃣ Do you feel like your future self is still you?
yes: you care more no: why invest?
2️⃣ Can you actually see your future self?
In the research, people were shown aged versions of themselves, and they started saving more money.
3️⃣ Do you like your future self?
If future-you feels miserable, you avoid thinking about them; if they feel inspiring, you want to invest in them.
Your brain literally treats your future self like another person. So when you delay something good now… you’re basically doing a favor for "someone else".
No wonder it’s hard...
If you want better decisions, you don’t need more pressure/discipline/systems, you need to make your future self feel real.
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