Ways to Increase Value
Pick Enjoyable Tasks
There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and to achieve a goal. Maybe you want to start exercising. Rather than trying to flagellate yourself through discipline to do a type of workout you hate, find a form of exercise that carries significant Value, because you genuinely enjoy it. You may think you hate every form of exercise, but the reality is that you’ve probably only tried four or five, and there are hundreds more to sample. If you don’t like running, try swimming; if you don’t like jiu-jitsu, try tennis; if you don’t like biking try boxing. Or forget all about “official” forms of exercise, and just become a dedicated walker. Experiment, and find something you’ll actually look forward to doing.
Or let’s say you’d like to start reading more books. Rather than forcing yourself to try to read the high-brow material you’re “supposed” to enjoy, but struggle to keep picking up, choose a genre that actually makes it hard for you to put a book down.
There are often multiple ways into the same result; pick one that provides you with plenty of spontaneous-yet-enduring Motivation.
Make the Task Enjoyable
Of course there are some tasks in life where there isn’t a fun-flavored option to choose; there’s only one way in, and that way is onerous. But even in that case, you can still up your Motivation by making a dull, burdensome task, if not outright enjoyable, then at least a little more enjoyable than it’d otherwise be.
For example, as mentioned above, there’s not much fun to be had with doing your taxes. But you can make the process more pleasant by listening to a favorite jazz album while sipping your favorite beverage. Likewise, as many a laundry-folder knows, the job goes down a lot easier if you listen to a podcast while you do it.
A great way to make a task more enjoyable is to inject some sociality into it. In her book Life Admin, writer Elizabeth Emens takes a deep dive into the un-fun stuff we have to do to keep our day-to-day lives rolling along — filing taxes, filling out enrollment forms, planning parties, scheduling appointments, etc. The kind of stuff we have a tendency to procrastinate on.
One suggestion Emens gives to make doing “life admin” a bit more enjoyable is to create “Admin Study Halls.” Basically, you invite all your friends to your place, and together you work on all your respective life admin tasks. Working with others provides some accountability, but the big bonus is that sharing in the suffering makes the work more bearable.
Treat Yo Self
And then there are those tasks that can never be made more enjoyable, no matter how much you try.
Take getting a colonoscopy. Colon cancer is one of the deadliest types of cancer, but if you discover it early, it can often be nipped in the bud. Colonoscopies are what allow for this early detection. Doctors recommend that you start getting them regularly when you reach age 50 (age 40 if you have a family history of the disease), but most people put off the procedure since it’s fairly unpleasant.
There’s not much you can do to make getting a camera stuck up your butt more enjoyable. But if you can’t add Value to the process itself, you can tie it to the end result by creating a reward for prioritizing the procedure.
Tell yourself, “If I get a colonoscopy, I’ll buy that new [fill in the blank] I’ve had my eye on.” And then treat yourself to it once you follow through.
The more unpleasant or difficult the task, the bigger reward will likely have to be to sufficiently motivate you to take action.
If you’ve done the work of breaking your tasks into smaller, easy-to-do steps, the reward for completing those small tasks doesn’t have to be as significant. For example, if one of your tasks is “Work on report outline for 25 minutes,” your reward could be “Surf around on the web for 10 minutes.” If you successfully flossed one tooth, do a celebratory fist pump; I like to mouth the intro guitar riff to AC/DC’s “Back in Black” every time I floss.
According to Fogg, a reward/celebration for doing a task/habit can take any form. It just has to be 1) immediate, and 2) genuinely make you feel good. The resulting after-action glow creates positive reinforcement, increasing the perceived value of getting things done, and making you feel more motivated to keep up your to-do slaying effectiveness.
Punish Yo Self
As discussed above, a counterintuitive way to add Value to a task is affixing a punishment for not completing it. As the penalty increases, you value the task more because you want to avoid the penalty. Don’t underestimate the power of the stick!
I’ve added Value to tasks by increasing the penalty for putting them off by using a website called StickK. StickK allows you to create “Commitment Contracts” with yourself. You tell the site what you want to accomplish and when, and then — this is the magic sauce — you set a financial penalty for yourself if you don’t complete the task within that timeframe. You can even set it up so that if you don’t live up to your commitment, the money goes to an organization that upholds values you despise.
To prevent yourself from gaming StickK and saying you completed the task even though you didn’t, you can establish an accountability partner who will be asked to determine whether or not the task has been completed according to the terms of the contract. If your partner gives you the thumbs down, your credit card is automatically deducted for the amount you agreed to.
As with rewards, the harder the task is to get started on, the bigger the punishment has to be to provide sufficient incentive for completing the task sooner rather than later.
Connect Tasks to Bigger Meaning
One easy way to increase the Value of a task is connecting it with your, well, values and the bigger meaningful vision you have for your life.
Setting up a 529 plan for your kid is boring and not fun. But helping your child get a good education may mean a lot to you. If it does, remind yourself of that in order to boost the Value of the task, and thus your motivation for completing it.
If you’ve got tasks at work that you’ve been putting off, reflect on the way that their completion will, even in small ways, improve your customers’ lives, as well as the fact that your diligence at work allows you to provide a living for your family. Think about how you want to shield them from the worry of financial hardship. If it worked for Homer Simpson, it’ll work for you.
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