This blog contains a work confession, so this is between you and me, ok?
When I got to work today, I immediately jumped back into the activity I left off on Friday evening. Once I finished it, I moved onto the next task. I was really proud of myself that I was actually getting work done! Then, I got a ping from my boss, whom we’ll call Palmer (after the former President on 24 because my boss is a very nice African American guy who commands respect):
Palmer: Do you have the metrics for the next review?
ina: you’ll have them very soon!
I had forgotten about that analysis. I can do it in about an hour, it’s really not a big deal, but I felt very overwhelmed. I was already on a roll with one task, and all of the sudden something else got piled up in my brain. So what was the next thing I did? I opened FreeCell.
Why did I do that? The more work I have, the more stressed out I should feel, and the more pressure to get it done I should feel. Then why on Earth was my first impulse to open up a solitaire card game?
The answer lies in this study from NPR’s Radio Lab: Willpower and the ‘Slacker’ Brain.
That’s a story that I think EVERYONE should listen to. Don’t just read it, click on the LISTEN link.
It basically explains that the brain is remarkably weak and lacking in willpower. It gave the example of a study where a group of people were given some numbers to memorize: some people were given 2 numbers, and others were given 7 numbers. After being given them, they would just have to walk down the hall and recite the number in another room. What they didn’t know was that the experiment was really outside of those rooms.
On the way to the second room to recite the number, they passed by the study team’s snack bar. They offered them a snack as a “Thank You” for participating in the study, and they were given a choice between fruit salad and a decadent yummy chocolate cake. The results: an overwhelming majority of the people who were given 7 numbers to memorize picked the cake over the fruit.
The reason: the brain spends extra power in staying on course. When it’s busy doing something (like memorizing a long number), it gets that much weaker at fighting urges. But when it’s doing something easy (like memorizing just two numbers), it can retain control of itself and make smarter choices (like picking the fruit salad over the cake). The conclusion is that the brain is SO weak, that just memorizing 7 numbers over 2 made a big difference in will power.
That is what happened to me: I spend all day trying to stay on track. I was already on a roll and my brain was busy. When a new task came in, my brain got really really lazy and could not help itself: it’s time for FreeCell!
To my credit, I realized what was happening as soon as I opened the program, and closed it right away… then I opened Notepad and wrote this bit about it 🙂 So I guess I didn’t really succeed in battling my weakness at all.
Good luck to all of you with your weak brains, sounds like you’ll need it.
ina