zen_gineer

This is very close to Buddhist philosophy. Shorter goals means your mind is closer to living in the now. Which in reality is the only time it's possible to live in. But if your mind isn't with you in the now, then you aren't fully enjoying it. It would go futher and say that after making plans to do the dishes, the joy now comes from doing the dishes. Not in having them done, which only lasts a fraction of an instant. The past can't sustain you. But the present does. The feel of the warm water on your hands. The sound of the water running. The smell of soap suds. That's what life is made up of.

Hmm.. I know self control has been shown to be something like a muscle that requires work and is fatigue-able. That work in itself is distracting. It's like part of you is being detoured already for your internal battle. Maybe a better strategy would be to learn how to trick yourself into really WANTING to do the work your aiming at. We're good at convincing ourselves to view things in whatever way is beneficial, and once you do that, you can focus your whole self on the task. Doing something you want to do is much more productive than doing something your trying hard to control yourself to do.

But this comes down to choosing between magnifying your talents or working on your weaknesses. We are evolutionary programmed to be very susceptible to interruptions. They were important once upon a time. We can spend effort trying to reprogram ourselves I guess. But I'd rather spend that effort elsewhere.