Rewards are for winners
Reward yourself and get more done
Recently, I showed you how to retrain your brain to form new habits with something called Pattern Interrupts.
This habit hack is different, but it’s based on the same principle. What is that principle? The idea that you can make yourself far more productive by changing your habits at the brain-based level.
When you understand how habits are formed in the brain, you'll be in control of your habits and your identity.
How the brain works
So, let’s talk about the brain. Your brain is a powerful machine that wants to keep you alive and happy. Your conscious mind represents your everyday decision making and awareness, but most of your habits and behavior are driven by your subconscious mind.
Your subconscious is powerful. It gets the job done. Otherwise...you wouldn’t be here. And one of your subconscious mind’s goals is to keep you happy. It’s so important to remember that.
So, if you encounter things that bring you stress or make you unhappy, then your subconscious mind is going to develop strategies to avoid those things.
Likewise, if you encounter things that make you happy and feel good, then your subconscious mind will develop strategies to attract those things and bring them into your life.
What makes you happy?
Now, this sounds simple. And in many ways it is simple. However, what actually makes a person happy is more complicated than it sounds, especially when you really start to dive into the complexities of human psychology.
Most of us have probably been around long enough to realize that...but let’s not go there for now.
But for our purposes here, let’s keep it simple. Your brain wants to avoid stress and negative beliefs. The more you associate “productivity” with stress and drudgery and negative beliefs, then the more your brain will want to avoid being productive and you’ll get less done.
The more you associate productivity with positive feelings and enjoyment, then the more your brain will be drawn to being productive and you’ll get more done.
Give yourself subjective rewards, and you’ll get more done.
It’s that simple.
Over time you will associate productivity with the good feelings generated by these rewards and your brain will be drawn more and more to being productive.
How does it work?
When you are happy, your brain releases dopamine. Dopamine makes you feel good. You’re happy whenever you receive a reward, because a reward is just something you enjoy, by definition.
So when you complete tasks, give yourself a small reward. Your brain will release dopamine, and over time your brain will start to associate this feeling with being productive.
Then you will start being more productive, because your brain will be drawn to productivity. You’ll engage in less “work-avoidance” behavior, because you won’t view work and productivity as drudgery and stress-inducing (at least at the unconscious level).
What is a reward?
This is easy to define, because it can be literally anything.
What do you enjoy? What makes you feel good? Whatever your answer to this question is - that’s your reward.
Now, obviously your subjective reward has to be within reason (and legal, let’s not get crazy here). Your reward can’t be a trip to the Bahamas for going through your email every morning, and it may not be wise to make your reward a shot of whiskey for completing a task at 8 am in the morning.
Your reward needs to be something you enjoy, but not something that will be overly distracting or that will get you off track in a major way. Your reward could be a few minutes of time on your phone to check social media or play a quick game. It could be listening to music. Taking a walk around the neighborhood. A cup of coffee.
Your reward should be something small that you enjoy. But again, be reasonable. For example, there’s nothing wrong with rewarding yourself with food, but if it’s going to make you sluggish and sleepy, don’t choose food for a reward, or at least wait until you’re almost done with all the tasks you need to do for the day.
Possible objections
Some people may object to this because it seems childish. We’re raised to think that, as adults, we’re supposed to be responsible. If you have something that you’re supposed to do, then just do it. You shouldn’t need a reward to do your job.
Also, some people don’t like this method, because it seems like you are tricking yourself into being productive. And this seems...wrong somehow.
To these objections I would say...who cares? The main question should be, does this work or not?
And the answer is that it does work, because it’s based on the science of how the brain works and on how it forms habits.
But seriously, I can understand the potential objections - especially the first one - that it seems childish somehow. Look, on one level, you should obviously choose which habit hacks work for you and which suit your personality.
However, I would argue that the idea of rewarding yourself doesn’t have to be done in a childish or immature way. Rewarding yourself doesn’t mean that you give yourself a gold sticker or a pat on the back. And it doesn’t mean that you literally “reward” yourself in the same manner that you would a child.
It just means that you want to make productivity into an enjoyable experience that your brain is drawn to. Achieving this depends on an honest understanding of who you are.
The idea of subjective rewards is based on a dispassionate understanding of how the brain works. Give yourself something that you enjoy as you complete tasks. That way your brain will associate productivity with the dopamine your brain receives from the rewards.
This is simply a way of conditioning the brain to seek productive behavior. Look, a lot of us struggle with being productive, because we associate it with drudgery, stress, and negative emotions.
We all want to be more productive. We get excited and happy whenever we think about goals that we want to achieve. But the actual experience of getting to those goals often seems...like work.
Work, work, work
Think about the word “work.” If you’ll notice, I’ve avoided using it in this whole article, because our society largely views “work” as negative and something to avoid.
But if you’re reading this, then you’re the type of person who wants to be more productive. Because you want to do things and make something of yourself.
Maybe you want to provide for your family. Maybe you want the sense of accomplishment that comes from building something. Maybe you just want to make more money.
Whatever your reasons are, you want to do more. And if you want to do more, then you need to understand how the brain can be more productive. And that might mean that you need to get over a preconceived notion of work and productivity.
If you think that rewards are just for children, then get over it.
Rewards are for people who get things done.
(Coffee's for closers, remember)?
When you reward yourself, you will be the person who get more done.
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