Everyone knows willpower is important, and the clever among us work to simultaneously develop stronger willpower and strategically use less of it. But we should also consider the timing, location, and frequency of willpower battles. We should also choose our willpower battles wisely.
Here are three strategies you can use to do just that.
#1 Choose easier battles.
Some willpower-using activities are relatively easy, while others are quite hard.
Let’s say your doctor has asked you to get more exercise, and you’re considering your options. One option is to take up running, and another is to join a recreational basketball team. If you hate running and love basketball, the choice is obvious. It will still take willpower to join a basketball team and attend practices regularly, but it will be easier than going running because it will be fun.
Sometimes the difficulty of a willpower battle is determined by when and where it is fought.
Most people will find it easier to avoid eating sugar in August than in December simply because December is filled with holiday parties, which are filled with cookies and chocolates and other treats. So you’re probably setting yourself up for failure if you try to quit sugar right before the holidays. And don’t start a new diet the day before Thanksgiving.
I find it much easier to eat healthy food at home because I control what comes into my fridge and pantry. I find it much more difficult to eat healthy food at a restaurant or at a party because most of the options are unhealthy. But parties and eating out are uncommon, so winning those battles isn’t as important. I eat very healthily at home, where the willpower battles are easily won, and I sometimes allow myself to eat whatever I want when I’m out because those willpower battles are much harder.
#2 Don’t fight tired.
When you’re tired, your willpower is reduced.
So if you can, schedule your most difficult, willpower-draining tasks for those times of day when you’re at your best. And avoid work that requires a great deal of willpower at those times of day when you’re feeling drained. Build in microbreaks to avoid burnout. Or treat yourself like a toddler and force yourself to take a nap. Return to the battle after you’ve recharged your batteries.
If you’re already using a great deal of willpower for other purposes, it’s probably a poor time to start a new willpower-requiring endeavor. If you’re working 70 hours a week to meet a deadline, it’s probably not a great time to take on a new project. If you’re in the first month of a radical lifestyle change, such as getting sober, it might be the wrong time to make yourself start a new productivity habit.
Or maybe you want to give fasting a try because you keep hearing about the benefits of intermittent fasting. Well, that’s a fine little experiment, but bear in mind that it won’t be easy. You’ll get hungry. You might even get hangry. So don’t try fasting on a day you have to get up early and do a ton of work you don’t enjoy. If you’re already going to be strained and exhausted, you’re won’t be well prepared to fight the additional willpower battle of not eating.
#3 Choose to fight less often.
Most people make the mistake of fighting willpower battles more frequently than they need to.
For example, many people take behaviors like meditation and do them sporadically. Each time they try to meditate, they have to fight a willpower battle just to get started. But if you make a 100% commitment to making meditation a daily habit and track your efforts on a calendar chain, you can transform meditation from something you have to make yourself do into something that you just do automatically. It takes a lot of willpower to install a new healthy habit, but once you do, the behavior won’t require willpower anymore.
You can also set yourself up to fight fewer willpower battles by turning your home into a temptation-free environment. Or at least apply The 20-Second Rule and hide the things that tempt you in inconvenient locations.
In the war against junk food, I prefer to fight my battles at the grocery store rather than at home. If I give in to temptation at the store and buy candy or chips, then I have constantly fight the urge to eat them at home. I’d rather win the willpower battle at the grocery store in order to avoid fighting many willpower battles at home.
Make no mistake, though: This is no easy fight. At the grocery store, the odds are really stacked against you. Essentials are spread throughout the store, which forces you to walk by aisles of junk food you’d rather avoid. The end-caps of aisles are often stocked with enticing treats that are on sale. And the checkout line where you have to stand and wait is loaded with candy.
This is no accident. They know that by the time you reach the checkout line you’re tired, and waiting makes you bored and annoyed, so you’ll crave some sort of pleasure, some sort of relief, and candy could offer that. If this is an area of temptation for you, approach it with firm resolve. Do not face the candy. Read the magazine covers, check your phone, talk to someone else in line – anything to keep the candy out of sight and therefore out of mind. And remember, you only have to make it out the door. Once you’ve left the building, the battle is over and you’re in the clear. And you only had to fight once.
Lose well.
Lastly, remember that when you lose a battle, you haven’t lost the war. Nobody has perfect willpower all the time, so it’s wise to replace perfectionism with a growth-minded attitude toward slip-ups. It’s important to know how to handle willpower failures well, so you don’t let one willpower failure turn into a cascade of others.
Choose your willpower battles wisely, but, should you lose, lose your willpower battles wisely too.