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While backpacking, more than 20 years ago, I visited the stunning coloured lakes of Kelimutu on the island of Flores in Indonesia.
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This is known as learned industriousness. As children we are taught through experience and persuasion that effort leads to reward and over time this conditions us to enjoy effort for its own sake. We might spend hours puzzling over a cryptic crossword instead of using a search engine to find the solution. The intrinsic joy of the effort gives us so much pleasure that we don’t take the short cut. Sometimes we take the easy route and do as little as we can get away with, but at other times we value situations more if we have to expend considerable effort. Michael Inzlicht from the University of Toronto calls this the paradox of effort. They go way beyond what is required for health and fitness. And what about the people who trek across the ice to reach the poles of the Earth or sail around the world? Think of all of your friends who run marathons or have punishing regimes at the gym. This experiment is an extreme example, but we know from everyday life that people constantly choose to do things they don’t need to do and which are sometimes painful. It turns out that having nothing to do was so excruciating, that many of the participants preferred to, in effect, torture themselves rather than put up with no distractions whatsoever. Wrong. In fact, 71% of the men and 25% of the women gave themselves at least one electric shock during their time in solitary – and one man shocked himself a shocking 190 times. You might suppose that having tried it once no one would want to do it again.
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So, how did it go? Well, before being left alone, participants were shown how to press a computer key which was wired up to a machine that delivered an electric shock.
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It was an opportunity to kick back and relax for a short while. Electrodes were fitted to their ankles and they were left alone for 15 minutes. They had no phone, no books, no screens – and they weren’t allowed to take a nap. In a famous study conducted a few years ago at the University of Virginia, participants were led one at a time into a completely bare room with all distractions removed. It may sound like a lovely idea, but in fact we can find doing nothing at all – and take sleep out of the equation – very hard to do. Just staring at the ceiling, listening to the silence. Except that we break it all the time.ĭo you ever dream of doing absolutely nothing? Lying in a hammock for a whole afternoon. This is sometimes known as the principle of least effort or Zipf’s Law, a law you might think no one is ever tempted to break.
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If you have a remote control, why get up and switch channels on the TV itself? If you have a car why cycle to the supermarket? If you can get away with doing half as much work than a colleague, then why not?Īny sort of work or effort involves mental and physical strain, so it makes sense to avoid it where possible. It’s true that we often look for the easy option, the path of least resistance, the shortcut to success. How your mindset determines your health.Eight ways to curb your procrastination.Or at least, a good balance between being busy and being able to rest.
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In fact, it is not as simple as that, as you’ve probably already found out, after a few weeks of lockdown. It turns out we are not biologically programmed to do as little as possible. This all sounds as though it should appeal to our lazier sides. But for once the official advice sounds easy loaf on the sofa, binge-watch box sets, stay at home. We’re used to health warnings that urge us to do things that we don’t really have a great urge to do: to exercise more, to eat five or eight or even 10 portions of fruit and vegetables a day. In the video, the comedian Larry David, in his trademark sardonic style, urges people to follow the official advice and stay at home to stop the spread of Covid-19. What’s the matter with you "idiots", he says, you’re passing up a fantastic opportunity to sit in an armchair and watch TV all day! You may be among the more than three million people who’ve seen a short film issued by the Governor of California’s office.