The Power of Discipline

Discipline draws a line in the sand between what you need to do, and how you feel about doing it.

Discipline does what must be done, and the successful completion of a task usually brings about the same rush of endorphins that chronic procrastinators believe is necessary to even begin the task.

There’s a really interesting study by Dan Ariely where students were tasked with proofreading three passages. Group 1 got a weekly deadline for each passage. Group 2 got a single deadline for all passages, and Group 3 were allowed to set their own deadline.

Group 2 were the worst performers. The distant deadline proved an insufficient motivation without the compelling fear of a deadline each successive week. However, the group that set their own deadlines were the next worst performers.