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B_For_Bandana comments on Me and M&Ms - Less Wrong Discussion
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Can I ask a silly question? My understanding of your situation is that you want to get your work done, but sometimes you don't have the willpower, so you use your M&M system for motivation. But then you are faced with the possibility of just eating a bunch of M&M's without doing anything. And there is no meta-M&M system to motivate you to keep from eating M&M's. So I don't see how this can actually help you. Empirically, it clearly does, but I have trouble understanding how. Why is it easier to keep from eating M&M's "on your own" and leverage that ability to motivate you to do work, than it is to keep doing work "on your own" in the first place?
If I have just ruined the effect, I sincerely apologize...
I'm assuming because "don't eat undeserved M&Ms" is a clear, simple and binary rule - breaches are obvious, so there's not much of a temptation to rationalize them. "Work on my stuff" is broad and fuzzy and has plenty of room for excuses like "I'm a bit tired today", "I deserve to rest", "I'll do it tomorrow', etc.
That makes sense.
What Emile said, although I do have to make sure I don't cheat! (Also, the M&Ms are in a desk drawer where I can't see them) Before I tried this, every time I goofed off during a pomodoro, the mild buzz of surfing the internet served as a reward. Now, I tell myself, "don't goof off, or no M&M for you!"
There's a second reward as well, which may not apply to everyone equally. I work full-time, basically in legal research. I used to spread 10 pomodoros out over the day (okay, 8). Now I do 10 as fast as possible, and then switch to personal research. This makes the day much more pleasurable. The M&Ms reinforce this faster-moving, more engaging schedule.