Willpower by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney

Willpower is the ability to control yourself and the ability to resolve your inner conflicts so that your conscious goals always win. People with high willpower are able to suppress impulses, turn down temptations, avoid procrastination, and stay focused on their objectives. High willpower is a broadly beneficial trait correlated with high grades, high career achievement, high income, high savings, low debt, healthy body weight, positive social relationships, low drug use, low criminality, low stress, and high life satisfaction.

Scientists studying willpower in the lab have consistently made the following observations:

• After subjects perform an effortful, willpower-demanding task, they perform worse on subsequent effortful tasks, even when the later tasks are very different from the first
• Willpower gets depleted primarily by the act of decision-making; pre-decision pondering or post-decision execution have little effect
• Willpower can only be replenished by food (specifically glucose) and by sleep
• Willpower is reduced by the existence of many unfinished and pending tasks, but the effect is eliminated when people have an actionable “next step” to take for each of the in-progress tasks
• In low-stress situations, people consistently over-predict their willpower and rationality in future high-stress situations
• People who turn down temptations with a self-promise to indulge in them “later” are more successful than people who use a strategy of “never” indulging
• The more goals and priorities people set for themselves, the less likely they are to achieve any of them

When willpower is depleted, people are more stressed and they feel negative emotions more acutely. Depleted people often procrastinate; if they make choices, they usually pick timid, conservative, and low-risk options that preserve the status quo and avoid closing too many future doors. When temptations are present, depleted people fall for them; even the smartest people are capable of inexplicably poor judgment when they are fatigued. Since depletion produces no physical symptoms by itself, depleted people are usually unaware that they are depleted.

Willpower appears to be a trainable skill that people can improve through practice. When people want to accomplish something, they must first set reasonable, well-scoped, and actionable goals for themselves. Once they start, they must monitor their progress consciously, frequently, and consistently. It is important to maintain a positive mindset based on future rewards - self-deprivation rarely works as a long-term strategy. Success is more likely when goals and strategies are shared with other people; sharing creates a sense of accountability. Once willpower is applied strongly over an extended period of time to bring a specific change to a person’s life, a permanent habit is formed. The person’s willpower “muscle” ends up slightly stronger than before.

Good habits are the ultimate goal. Habits do not require willpower in order to be performed; people performing habitual actions can effortlessly dismiss temptations and distractions. High-willpower people are keenly aware of their habits and are always trying to improve them. Instead of using willpower as a crutch to get through day-to-day life, high-willpower people devote their finite willpower towards the loftier goal of building better habits and routines. High-willpower people diligently arrange their lives to avoid distractions, temptations, excessive priorities, conflicting priorities, and other hallmarks of stressful situations. Successful people use their willpower to build a lifestyle in which willpower is no longer required.