How to Be Effortlessly Disciplined: 5 Mindset Shifts
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Ali, a doctor turned entrepreneur, discusses five evidence-based strategies to enhance self-discipline. He introduces mental contrasting to visualize goals against current reality, implementation intentions to plan for obstacles, reducing environmental friction to simplify actions, monitoring and tracking progress for motivation, and making tasks enjoyable to reduce the need for discipline. Ali also highlights the 'Rise' time tracking app as a tool to improve discipline and productivity.
Takeaways
- 📊 Self-discipline is crucial for completing tasks despite distractions or boredom, and it can be developed and improved over time.
- 🛡️ Discipline acts as a mental armor, enabling individuals to perform tasks they don't feel like doing, which ultimately leads to freedom.
- 🧠 Mental contrasting involves envisioning the desired future and contrasting it with the current reality, which can energize and motivate towards goal commitment.
- 🔍 A study by Gabrielle Oettingen supports the effectiveness of mental contrasting in driving people to take responsibility for their actions towards their goals.
- ⏱️ Rise is a time-tracking app that helps increase discipline by automatically categorizing activities and providing insights into how time is spent.
- 🚀 Implementation intentions, as studied by Angela Duckworth, involve creating 'if-then' statements to overcome potential obstacles, leading to increased action towards goals.
- 🔗 Pairing mental contrasting with implementation intentions forms a strategy called MCI, which is evidence-based for increasing motivation and discipline.
- 🏋️♂️ Reducing environmental friction by designing an environment that supports desired behaviors can make it easier to be disciplined without relying on willpower.
- 📊 Monitoring and tracking progress in areas of focus can increase motivation, provide feedback, and clarify what strategies are effective for improvement.
- 📝 The app 'Streaks' is used for habit tracking, reminding users to perform actions and maintaining motivation through visual streaks of consistency.
- 🌟 Making tasks more enjoyable or energizing can reduce the need for discipline, as people are more likely to engage in activities they find fun or fulfilling.
Q & A
What is the main theme of the video?
-The main theme of the video is to discuss five science-backed methods to improve self-discipline and the potential pitfalls of focusing too much on discipline.
What is the scale mentioned in the video for measuring one's ability to complete tasks despite distractions?
-The scale mentioned is from 1 to 10, where 10 represents the highest level of self-discipline in completing tasks regardless of boredom or distractions.
What is the concept of mental contrasting as explained in the video?
-Mental contrasting is a technique based on fantasy realization theory, which involves contrasting one's current reality with their desired future, thereby inducing a necessity to act and mobilizing energy towards goal commitment.
What is the role of the 'rise' app in improving discipline according to the video?
-The 'rise' app is a time tracking app that helps users monitor their time spent on various activities, thus increasing their awareness and helping them to be more disciplined by seeing how much time they actually spend on tasks.
What is an 'implementation intention' and how does it help with discipline?
-An implementation intention is a strategy where one formulates 'if-then' statements to anticipate and plan responses to potential obstacles that could hinder their progress towards a goal, thus increasing the likelihood of overcoming those obstacles and staying disciplined.
How does the video suggest reducing environmental friction to improve discipline?
-The video suggests designing one's environment to make the desired actions easier to perform, such as having gym clothes ready in the morning to encourage going to the gym or not buying junk food to avoid unhealthy eating habits.
What is the significance of monitoring and tracking in enhancing discipline?
-Monitoring and tracking provide motivation, feedback, and clarity about what is working and what is not, which helps individuals adjust their actions and maintain discipline towards their goals.
What is the 'streaks' app mentioned in the video and how does it contribute to discipline?
-The 'streaks' app is a habit tracking tool that reminds users to perform certain actions and helps them maintain a streak of consecutive days of performing those actions, which serves as a motivational factor to continue being disciplined.
Why might focusing too much on discipline be the wrong move according to the video?
-Focusing too much on discipline might be the wrong move because it can lead to an overemphasis on willpower and self-control, potentially neglecting the importance of making tasks enjoyable and energizing, which can naturally enhance productivity and discipline.
What is the core thesis of the book 'Feelgood productivity' by Ali, as mentioned in the video?
-The core thesis of 'Feelgood productivity' is that when we feel good, we are more likely to be productive, and this applies to discipline as well. Making tasks enjoyable and energizing reduces the need for discipline.
What is the 'Trident method' mentioned in the video and how is it related to discipline?
-The 'Trident method' is a time management technique discussed in another video by the same author. It is related to discipline as effective time management can support individuals in maintaining discipline by prioritizing and allocating time to important tasks.
Outlines
🛡️ Developing Discipline Through Mental Contrasting
The speaker, Ali, introduces the concept of discipline as a mental armor and suggests that most people could benefit from enhancing their self-discipline. He presents the first method, 'mental contrasting,' based on Gabrielle Oettingen's Fantasy Realization Theory. This method involves contrasting one's current reality with a desired future state, which can activate the necessary actions to bridge the gap. A study by Oettingen demonstrated that individuals who mentally contrasted their current state with their goals were more likely to act on their responsibilities towards achieving those goals. Ali also mentions his book, 'Feelgood Productivity,' and hints at a discussion on the potential pitfalls of overemphasizing discipline. He concludes the paragraph by introducing the 'rise' app, a time-tracking tool that he uses to improve his discipline and productivity, and which is sponsoring the video.
🚀 Boosting Discipline with Implementation Intentions
The second method discussed is 'implementation intentions,' a strategy explored by psychologist Angela Duckworth. This approach involves creating 'if-then' statements to prepare for and overcome potential obstacles. Duckworth's study with high school students showed that those who used this method completed 60% more practice questions than a control group. The speaker explains that by pairing mental contrasting with implementation intentions, one can create a powerful strategy known as MCI (Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions), which is highly effective for increasing motivation and discipline. Ali also mentions his book again for those interested in learning more about this strategy.
🌿 Designing an Environment for Effortless Discipline
The third strategy focuses on reducing environmental friction to make disciplined behavior more accessible. The idea is to design one's surroundings in a way that supports the desired actions, such as placing gym clothes in an easily accessible location to encourage exercise. The speaker emphasizes the importance of the environment in shaping behavior and suggests that by reducing the 'friction' associated with starting a task, one can increase the likelihood of following through with it. He provides examples from his own life, such as keeping medical textbooks close by during medical school, to illustrate how environmental design can support discipline.
📊 The Power of Monitoring and Tracking for Discipline
Monitoring and tracking are introduced as the fourth method for increasing discipline. The speaker cites the principle that what gets measured gets managed and improved, with examples such as daily weigh-ins aiding weight loss and tracking workouts to build muscle. He outlines three reasons why tracking works: it provides motivation through the visibility of progress, offers a feedback loop to adjust actions, and gives clarity on what strategies are effective. Ali shares his personal use of the 'streaks' app to maintain habits like daily exercise and filming for his vlog channel, highlighting the motivational benefits of tracking and monitoring.
🎉 Making Discipline Fun and Energizing
The final strategy presented is to make the activities that require discipline more enjoyable or energizing. The speaker argues that when we feel good about what we are doing, productivity and discipline naturally follow. He suggests incorporating elements of play, power, and people into tasks to make them more enjoyable, reducing the need for discipline. Examples include playing music while studying or changing locations to make the study process feel like an adventure. The speaker connects this strategy to the core thesis of his book, 'Feelgood Productivity,' and encourages finding ways to make any task more pleasant to eliminate the need for discipline.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Discipline
💡Mental Contrasting
💡Implementation Intentions
💡Feelgood Productivity
💡Rise
💡Streaks
💡Fantasy Realization Theory
💡Grit
💡Environmental Friction
💡Intrinsic Motivation
💡Play, Power, and People
Highlights
The importance of self-discipline in achieving goals and its comparison to a sharpened sword.
Introduction of the concept of mental contrasting based on Gabrielle Oettingen's fantasy realization theory.
The effectiveness of contrasting current reality with desired future in increasing goal commitment.
Mental contrasting's role in driving energy towards goals and enhancing discipline.
Recommendation of the 'Rise' time tracking app for improving discipline through automatic time categorization.
The impact of 'Rise' in increasing writing productivity and its role in the author's personal life.
Implementation intentions as a strategy to overcome obstacles and increase discipline, based on Angela Duckworth's study.
The combination of mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCI) for increasing motivation and discipline.
The concept of reducing environmental friction to effortlessly increase discipline by designing the environment.
The practical example of having gym clothes ready to reduce friction for going to the gym.
The idea that monitoring and tracking behaviors lead to improvement and increased discipline.
The three reasons why monitoring works: motivation, feedback loop, and clarity on effectiveness.
The use of the 'Streaks' app for habit tracking and its motivational impact on maintaining discipline.
The final strategy of making tasks more enjoyable or energizing to reduce the need for discipline.
The core thesis of 'Feelgood productivity' and how feeling good enhances productivity and reduces the need for discipline.
Examples of making studying more enjoyable through environmental and sensory adjustments.
The potential issue of time management despite increased discipline and a reference to the Trident method video.
Transcripts
I'm able to begin a task and complete it
regardless of boredom or distractions on
a scale from 1 to 10 how much do you
agree with that statement take a moment
to pause and to really think about your
answer to that now if you rated yourself
a 10 out of 10 then you probably don't
need this video but most of us could
probably do with a little bit more
discipline in our lives right through
discipline through self discipline you
develop like an armor for your mind you
just need to have discipline you need to
lock in and you need to do whether you
feel like you're not there is something
wrong with you and that discipline is
the solution discipline is the ability
to do hard stuff that you don't want to
do once you're disciplined like you're
you're like a sharpened sword man like a
well-tempered blade because discipline
equals
Freedom hey friends welcome back to the
channel if you're new here my name is
Ali I'm a doctor turned entrepreneur and
the author of Feelgood productivity
which is a book about how to do more of
what matters to you in a way that's
enjoyable and meaningful and sustainable
and so in this video I want to talk
through five science-backed evidence
based methods that you can use to become
more effortlessly disciplined but then
if you stick around till the end of the
video we're going to talk about why
actually focusing too much on discipline
might actually be the wrong move all
right so method number one is something
called mental contrasting and it's based
on a really cool study by a psychologist
called Gabrielle tingan and this is
about something called fantasy
realization Theory which states that
when people contrast their fantasies
about a desired future with Reflections
on their present reality a necessity to
act is induced that leads to the
activation and use of relevant
expectations that's a bit of a mouthful
but basically the way this study worked
is that they split people up into three
groups now with the first group they
asked them to imagine the positive
fantasy I.E to focus on the goal and
imagine how amazing it would be if they
actually hit the goal for the second
group they asked them to imagine a
negative fantasy I.E to focus on their
current state in the present moment and
how bad it was but then for the third
group they asked them to contrast these
two things so to look at the future to
look at the now and like really vividly
imagine the contrast between where they
are right now and where they want it to
be and basically what they showed is
that the people who contrasted where
they are and where they want to be were
way more likely to take responsibility
of their own actions when it came to
going towards their goals and they wrote
in 2009 we argue that mental contrasting
by making reality appear as an obstacle
to Fantasy realization mobilizes energy
that strengthens the transition to goal
commitment so basically the key idea
here is that if you mentally contrast
where you are now and where you want to
be that is more likely to drive energy
towards your goals and that is one of
the things that's more likely to make
you feel more disciplined and one
specific way of doing this is to First
imagine what that future and goal state
looks like like for example you've been
able to run that Marathon or get that
sixpack ABS or launch that business or
whatever the thing is that you're trying
to mobilize discipline to words and then
you want to figure out where you are
right now and imagine the obstacles that
might stand in your way like the
obstacle to me getting six-pack abs is
that I might eat too much crap or I
might not go to the gym as often as I
need to or a number of other things and
the more I can visualize those obstacles
along with the fantasy that I'm kind of
aiming towards in theory that is mental
contrasting and that should according to
the evidence improve our levels of
discipline now one of my favorite tools
that I use everyday for tracking to
improve my discipline is something
called rise and they are very kindly
sponsoring this video rise is an amazing
time tracking app that I've literally
been using for the last 2 years it works
on Mac it works on Windows and what it
does is that it automatically figures
out what program or what like Chrome tab
or whatever you're in and categorizes
that thing based on what you're doing on
your computer and so it's basically an
automatic way of tracking your time now
this is super helpful because if you're
struggling with discipline for something
like I was when I was writing my book it
was super helpful for me to see how much
time was I actually spend writing every
single day and so what rise would is
that if I was writing in Google Docs or
scrier or noan I was like you know the
different apps I was used for writing it
would call that writing time and I'd be
aiming to hit at least 4 hours a day and
before I used rise I thought hey i' I've
been writing all day and stuff but like
actually using rise made me realize that
oh crap I thought I was writing all day
but actually I was screwing around most
of the time and only doing like an hour
and a half of writing but as soon as I
started to track it and start seeing the
numbers I was like oh crap I should
spend more time in Google Docs and a
little less time on YouTube Rise also
has a really good commodora timer built
in so you can set 25 minute or 45 minute
study sessions or work s sessions or
whatever the thing is you want to do and
it also gives you very handy
notifications when it's time to take a
break and also when it senses that you
are getting distracted which I've got an
enormous mileage out of and genuinely
it's an app that helps me be more
effortlessly disciplined in fact I love
the app so much that I reached out to
the founders of the company the super
cool people and I've actually invested
in rice as a company because I have
enormous Faith behind what they're doing
and it's a really cool team behind it as
well and it's just a genuinely fantastic
way of tracking your time and staying
more on track and more disciplin so
thank you so much rise for sponsoring
this video all right method number two
is something really powerful as well and
that's something I use every day in my
life and that is called implementation
intentions now here is a cool study by
psychologist Angela Duckworth who
actually wrote the really good book grit
and in the study they got a group of
high school students who were going to
take a particular exam and first they
asked everyone to visualize the outcome
of succeeding in that exam but then they
split up the class into two different
groups now the first group the control
group was just asked to write an essay
about an influential person in their
life but the second group was asked
firstly to imagine the obstacles that
would stand in the way of them
succeeding the exam and then also to
create if then statements that might
help them overcome the obstacle so for
example if I get distracted while doing
practice tests I will get up and do a
quick walk around my room and then sit
down and start again so basically
they're trying to imagine the obstacles
that are going to be in their way and
then figuring out what are they going to
do if and when they encounter those
obstacles and the researchers found that
the treatment group I.E the group that
was asked to do the if then stuff that
group completed 60% more practice
questions than the people in the control
group and I don't know about you but if
I was for example struggling with
discipline to I don't know write or to
study or to go to the gym or whatever
the thing is and by just imagining
obstacles and then figuring out what I
would do if I encountered them that
could lead to a 60% increase in the
amount of questions I did or workouts I
did or anything like that that's pretty
sick it's a very very easy change we can
make to our lives and actually
psychologists have paired these two
strategies that we've just talked about
together called MCI mental contrasting
with implementation intentions so
technically an implementation intention
is just like when you say if x happens I
will do y so if for example you want to
floss more and you can say if I am
brushing my teeth or when I'm brushing
my teeth then afterwards I will also
floss so this is sometimes known as
habit stacking where you are stacking in
multiple habits together but technically
the psychology term for it is
implementation intentions and then if
you pair it with mental contrasting I.E
Imagining the future Imagining the
obstacles and then running
implementation intentions to figure out
how you're going to get through those
obstacles that concept of MCI is a
really well validated and highly
evidence-based strategy for increasing
your motivation and discipline to
actually make progress with the stuff
that matters to you if you're interested
in more details about implementation
intentions I have a whole section about
them in my book Feelgood productivity
which you can check out if you like but
let's now talk about method number three
which is to reduce environmental
friction and the key idea here is that
if you really want to effortlessly
increase your discipline you've got to
design your environment in a way that
makes it really easy so if for example
you are trying to be more disciplined to
go to the gym then having your gym
clothes out and in front of you when you
wake up so you can put them on first
thing in the morning makes it way easier
to actually have the discipline to go to
the gym similarly if you're trying to be
more disciplined and not eat unhealthy
food then just not buying junk food when
you go to the supermarket and shoving in
your fridge is a way of designing your
environment in a way that makes it easy
for you to be disciplined in that
context and I can't remember where this
quote is from but there's a really nice
quote which is that it doesn't take much
discipline to not eat a chocolate bar if
there are no chocolate bars in the house
and whenever I do talks and speak to
students and you know any any of this
kind of stuff people always ask me like
oh you know I I'm I'm not I'm not
disciplined enough or like how do I get
more discipline in my life and I usually
start I don't usually start with mental
contrastic or implementation intentions
cuz it's a bit of a mouthful to explain
I usually start with what does your
environment look like have you actually
designed your environment in a way that
makes it way easier for you to do the
thing that you think you want to do you
know back when I was in medical school I
would have my medical text books
literally next to my desk rather than
across the room because there's no
excuse for me not to just pick them up
if they're right next to me but if
they're all the way across the room and
I have to walk like five steps to get
there and take them off the bookshelf
and open that's too much friction
whatever I can do to reduce the
environmental friction of making
something happen is going to make it way
more likely that the thing will actually
happen and that is a way to become more
effortlessly disciplined by not actually
needing to rely on discipline and
willpower so if you want an action point
ask yourself right now what is something
that you are struggling with discipline
in and what are one or two things that
you can do to design your environment in
a way that that makes it way easier for
you to do the thing that you actually
want to do all right strategy number
four is monitoring and tracking and
basically the idea here is something
from management literature which is what
gets measured gets managed and what gets
measured gets improved and there have
been a bunch of studies that have shown
this for example for people who are
trying to lose weight just the act of
weighing yourself every day and just
looking at that number means just by
default you end up losing weight because
now you're more aware of this thing that
you're trying to do similarly if you're
trying to build muscle at the gym
everyone says you should track your
workouts and you should take progress
picks and maybe even like measure your
biceps and stuff because tracking those
numbers and seeing improvements over
time is a massive source of motivation
and therefore helps us be more
effortlessly disciplined and there are
three key reasons why monitoring the
things that you want to be more
disciplined in actually works the first
one is motivation so seeing ourselves
make progress in a thing that we care
about is enormously motivating and
drives something called intrinsic
motivation which is where you do the
thing for the sake of doing the thing
and feeling yourself improve and level
up and stuff is just a profoundly
motivating thing that we can do secondly
monitoring gives us a feedback loop and
so when we can see the result of the
actions that we're taking we can adjust
adust our actions accordingly and
thirdly monitoring gives us clarity
about what's working and what's not
working and so again allows us to adjust
what we're actually doing and that means
that you can focus on the stuff that's
actually moving the needle for the
results that you want which means you
have fewer things to focus on which is
also a thing that helps discipline for
me personally the way that I track any
new habit that I want to build is by
using an app called streaks on my iPhone
home screen it's super helpful right now
it reminds me to exercise 30 minutes a
day to do this meditation exercise that
I'm trying out and to film something for
my Vlog Channel every day and these are
things that I would otherwise struggle
with but the fact that I see it right
there on my iPhone home screen means
that I'm just like oh yeah of course I
need to do some exercise today and then
I will do it cuz I want to keep the
streak up and it's a reminder and it's
also monitoring and tracking and stuff
and seeing that streak build up for
several days in a row is also profoundly
motivating and now the final strategy
that I want to talk about as a way of
effortlessly increasing your discipline
is to find a way to make whatever you're
doing a little bit more enjoyable or
energizing and this is the core thesis
of my book Feelgood productivity it's
why it's called Feelgood productivity
because when we feel good we are more
likely to be productive and this really
applies to discipline as well like when
was the last time you felt you needed
discipline to I don't know watch Netflix
we tend not to need discipline for those
things because those things are
inherently enjoyable the things we need
discipline for are the things that we
don't enjoy so you only need discipline
to go to the gym if you don't enjoy
going to the gym you only need
discipline to study for your exams if
you do not enjoy the process of studying
for your exams now at this point a lot
of people think well I've got to do hard
stuff and we we we all have to do things
we don't enjoy and yes it's true that we
all have to do things that we don't
enjoy at times but there is normally an
enormous list of things that we can do
to make whatever we're doing a little
bit more enjoyable and a little bit more
energizing the first three chapters of
my book are play power and people so
incorporating play and power and people
into anything that you're doing however
boring and Grim the thing is will just
automatically make it more enjoyable and
more energizing which reduces the amount
of discipline that you actually need to
Marshall in order to do the thing for
example let's say you are struggling
with discipline when it comes to
studying for your exams ask yourself
what would this look like if it were fun
how can I make studying for my exams a
little bit more enjoyable could you have
some Lord of the Rings instrumental
music in the background while you're
studying could you go to a different
library or a coffee shop each day of the
the week so it feels like you're going
on this adventure could you find a way
to make your notes aesthetically pretty
and color code your timetables and stuff
just as a way of making the process of
studying a little bit more pleasant now
I'm using students as an example here
because we have all probably been
students at some point in our life if we
aren't already but this really applies
to absolutely everything in our life
because when you're having fun with what
you're doing productivity and discipline
and motivation and all of that kind of
stuff just automatically takes care of
itself and once you've done that you
broadly won't have to worry about
discipline ever again but one thing you
might run into is still worrying about
time management because managing our
time is something we all struggle with
and you can check out my video over here
which is about the Trident method which
is a specific method that I've been
using to manage my time that I've got an
enormous value out of so check that out
over there thank you so much for
watching I hope you enjoyed this video
and I'll see you later bye-bye
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