[hinkley]

Some psychologists seem to be okay with the idea of self-bribery to get through difficult tasks. I think culturally some of us are taught that this is a form of weakness, but it just results in things not being done.

I don't agree with a lot of Alcoholics Anonymous' philosophy, but the concept of 'white-knuckling' is quite a powerful metaphor for the trap we get into of trying to force ourselves through a difficult activity, and it speaks to a somewhat tortured value judgement around the relative value of doing a task at all versus doing it yourself. Like you'd rather have mold in your house than pay some guy to fix the shingles on your roof.

I've consumed as much if not more of my favorite ice cream in the last year, but it tends to be reserved for conscious choices: I'm going to make a difficult phone call or work on my billing, then go for ice cream, rather than whenever I just feel stressed. It is certainly not the only tool I have added to the toolbox, but it complements others and the end results have improved my outlook. And since motivation and mood are spirals (which I think you were trying to say?), that's a big deal.

[ep103]

I laughed while reading your response, because I was reading your response while eating a small amount of ice cream, specifically because I was about to go back to purging my day's worth of incoming emails, a task I genuinely hate doing : D

[knicholes]

I found myself doing the same, but I finally got so fed up with it I took action. I'm not sure about the content of your emails, but many of mine were from groups I was following that I had no interest in any longer, from code changes being made to repositories in which I no longer work, or just generic crap that I can't disable.

When I get an email I don't care about, I take action to make sure I don't get any more. I unsubscribe if it's a distribution list or some website that bought my email. I throw garbage I can't control into its own folder using Outlook rules. If it's a repo that I don't need, I unfollow it in github.

[dasil003]

Over the years as my email volume increased I did a lot of fine tuning to my email process (stars, labels, read/unread management, etc). Once it surpassed a certain threshold (maybe 250 per day), I just cut out email management entirely. I don't archive, I rarely label, I just go through the latest, respond to anything pressing, and if there's anything that needs further followup it goes to my OmniFocus inbox where I prioritize all my work.

Email is critical to my work, but gardening it is not worth the opportunity cost.

[powersnail]

> culturally some of us are taught that this is a form of weakness

It reminds me of in David Copperfield, where Mr. Murdstone asked his wife to be "firm" all the time.

I think the fact that qualities that are classified as weak or strong, is ultimately a type of bullying. Sometimes, it's a person bullying another. Sometimes, it's the culture bullying individuals, giving extra punishment to people already in distress.

Action by self-bribery is better than strong idleness, and there ought not to be no shame in self-bribery if that helps people to live a better life.

[darkerside]

My personal preference is to start with that, but quickly transition off the bribe. It was merely a crutch, albeit a helpful crutch, to get me started. But once I've proved I can do it without suffering, I know that I don't need those training wheels anymore, and in fact, in the future, they will hold me back, a meaningless ritual before the known work to be done.

Instead, find the next impossible task, and apply ice cream there.

[WalterBright]

> a form of their weakness

Princess Aura: Look! Water is leaking from her eyes.

The Emperor Ming: It's what they call tears, it's a sign of their weakness.