I am sure you have it too maybe to a greater or lesser degree than I do, but inside your head it exists. Whether or not it is contagious, I can't tell you. It seems like it is.

Akrasia is "the state of acting against one's better judgment", and some of you are thinking you might have that. I am not talking about those nights when you have had a few and you decide that not only should tell your boss how you really feel about them but you should throw in what you think about their wife too. (Although presumably, that is related and nine times out of ten akrasia is what got you telling all like a drunken Gossip Girl.) Today I am more focused on the times that you have the ability to make the right decision and chose not to.

One of the biggies for me is procrastination. I know that I need to do something, and I know that not doing it will be bad for me. For whatever reason, I don't do it anyway. It doesn't apply to everything. I make sure my kids are taken care of, but cutting the grass can invariably wait. Not indefinitely, of course, but I will wait until the grass is twice as hard to cut because my poor lawnmower is choking on the waist high grass like a smoker during a 10K. If you haven't figured it out, I am probably supposed to be doing something else right now. Hey at least I am not on Facebook right now.

The other nemesis is my diet. I can give mini lectures on Glycemic index and gluten sensitivity. I can even tell you how much better I felt when I stick to my zone/paleo diet and why you should too. I can tell you how my recovery times are greater and that I was able to do more work at the gym and at my job because I was clear headed. I can explain the low acid and low inflamation diets and how they can help you avoid pain and soreness after a tough workout. And I can do all that while eating german chocolate cake with coconut icing and drinking a beer. I am okay with veering off the diet once in a while, but it seems like there is always a good reason. It is a holiday, it is a birthday, there is a party, it is Gregor Mendel's 189th birthday. Whatever the reason, there is always a reason. Sometimes I can't even get it right with something as simple as, the next day I feel better if I drink red wine instead of beer. There is a clear alternative, but I don't take it. Part of me believes the adage, "If you crave it, you are probably allergic to it on some level" because that seems to be the case especially with gluten. On an aside, arkrasia doesn't seem to affect my exercise regiment nearly as badly as my diet. The two seem to flop, meaning I eat better and exercise less, while traveling(sometimes they both go to crap while traveling too, but normally they don't).

Don't get me wrong, I am not a total wreck. I get most things done in a reasonable amount of time, and I am not morbidly obese. But when it comes down to the choice, I sabotage my ability to lose another 20 pounds or get yard of the month. The articles I found talk about having discussions with yourself about the values of doing what it is you are avoiding and how they link up into the big picture. They also discuss understanding the dichotomy of the long term self (frequently more rational and goal based) and the short term self(generally less goal based and hedonistic). So based on their strategies, I am going to try reminding myself how doing the right thing fits into the vision of future Nate, and fracturing work into smaller packages so I don’t delay as long.

I think their research is strong on understanding what the problem is, but it is weak on their solutions. I am going to give it a try and I will let you know what I find, heck I might even write a book about it, but I won’t start on it until tomorrow.

Some of the Articles I found:

If you read only one, I recommend this one- http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/10/11/101011crbo_books_surowiecki?currentPage=all

http://calnewport.com/blog/2011/07/15/how-to-cure-deep-procrastination/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+StudyHacks+%28Study+Hacks%29&utm_content=Netvibes

http://rebirthofreason.com/Articles/Eric/Overcoming_Akrasia.shtml