“Good decision making is not a trait of the person, in the sense that it’s always there,” Baumeister says. “It’s a state that fluctuates.” His studies show that people with the best self-control are the ones who structure their lives so as to conserve willpower. They don’t schedule endless back-to-back meetings. They avoid temptations like all-you-can-eat buffets, and they establish habits that eliminate the mental effort of making choices. Instead of deciding every morning whether or not to force themselves to exercise, they set up regular appointments to work out with a friend. Instead of counting on willpower to remain robust all day, they conserve it so that it’s available for emergencies and important decisions.
“Even the wisest people won’t make good choices when they’re not rested and their glucose is low,” … That’s why the truly wise don’t restructure the company at 4 p.m. They don’t make major commitments during the cocktail hour. And if a decision must be made late in the day, they know not to do it on an empty stomach. “The best decision makers,” Baumeister says, “are the ones who know when not to trust themselves.”
John Tierney en The New York Times (no es que merezca la pena leerlo entero, es que es muy entretenido de leer). Tengo la intuición de que esto tiene que ver con la eficiencia o ineficiencia del multitasking. A lo mejor, lo que perdemos en concentración, lo ganamos en ahorro de autocontrol y de gasto de “fuerza de voluntad”. Cambiar de tarea brevemente nos evita tener que hacer un esfuerzo de autocontrol para terminar el trabajo con el que estamos. Por tanto, si sabemos que la distracción es breve, reservamos fuerza de voluntad para terminar el trabajo que hemos abandonado momentáneamente.
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