Beyond Willpower: How to Follow Through on Your Intentions with UCLA’s Hal Hershfield — Part 2

What would you do differently today if you could have a conversation with your future self?

According to UCLA Anderson School of Management professor Hal Hershfield, probably a lot. 

This episode explores practice suggestions to follow through on the intentions we set for ourselves, because willpower alone almost never works consistently enough to be an effective strategy.

Hal shares new research on why commitment devices work so well and yet so few people use them, how understanding barriers as external obstacles (rather than personal failures) is the key to making them stick, and what the emerging field of AI digital twins could mean for how we make decisions about time, focus, and the life we're building.

If part one was about recognizing the gap between your present and future self, this episode is about what to do about it.

What You'll Learn:

• Why spontaneity has real value, and why over-researching decisions has diminishing returns just like over-planning does.
• How hot vs. cold states affect follow-through, and why pre-committing in a calm moment is your best shot at protecting focus when things get stressful.
• Why commitment devices work when willpower doesn't, and how to make them work for your daily life, so you make one single decision instead of overcoming temptation each time it arises.
• How “anchoring” tricks us into thinking five minutes of scrolling is fine, and what to do about it.

Timestamps:

1. Spontaneity vs. Pre-planning in Time Use – 00:02:49
2. Hot vs. Cold State Planning for Micromoments – 00:03:21
3. Commitment Devices vs. Willpower in Managing Distractions – 00:05:11
4. Anchoring’s Effect on Decision-Making and Productivity – 00:07:20
5. Writing a letter from your future self, to the present self – 00:13:18

Connect with Hal

Website: https://www.halhershfield.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hal-hershfield
Hal’s Book: https://www.halhershfield.com/yourfutureself
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-behavioral-divide-with-hal-hershfield/id1713168854

For more insight on making the most out of the small moments in your day, follow Rebecca and the Time Billionaires Podcast on LinkedIn. 

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