In The Procrastination Equation, Dr. Piers Steele tells us:
“Being too tired is the number one reason people cite for putting things off. If you are not getting eight hours of sleep a night, you are harming your performance during the day. Lack of sleep significantly lowers all forms of cognitive performance, making everything you do more difficult. Here’s an idea: instead of setting your alarm clock to get yourself up, set it to cue you to go to sleep. When you hear that buzz, start your wind-down routine.”
It is essential to realize that the day started the night before. PM counts twice. PM + AM + PM again. Be kind to your future self by allowing yourself to get 7+ hours of sleep.
Based on the information above, Brian Johnson at Heroic proposed adding Energy to the motivation equation:
Motivation = Energy x Expectancy x Value / Impulsiveness x Delay.
Dr. Tim Pychyl author of Solving the Procrastination Puzzle tells us that procrastination is an emotional process. He discusses some of the neuroscience behind procrastination and says that he agrees Energy should be in the numerator, but he would also add task aversiveness and negative affect in the denominator.
Motivation = Energy x Expectancy x Value / Impulsiveness x Delay x Task Aversiveness x Negative Affect
There we go. Now, we have an equation and 7 variables that we can tweak to increase or decrease our motivation.
