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Comment by kaybe | Hacker News Reader

There is a second step to this: 'You can stop if you want to.'

Just washing one plate does not mean I have to wash all of them. Stopping after only half of them is acceptable and preferable to not starting. So I can pick up and wash one without worrying about the full task.

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A similar trick works for avoiding sugary treats: don't strongly oppose this desire - instead say to yourself you can eat it at a later time and move your mind to something else.

(When you finally eat whatever it was you so much desired, you didn't really fail, because you are only consuming 1 unit for those 3/5/whatever days, instead of one every day...)

The cafe where I buy my lunchtime salad also sells a range of excellent cakes, which are very tempting. I've learned to tell myself that I only need to exercise self-control (and not buy a cake) while I'm in the queue to be served. It sounds obvious, but consciously reminding myself that the situation I'm trying to avoid is time-limited is a great help.

Hah, until you cave and get back in the queue ;)

Sorry, projecting a bit. I have absolutely zero discipline when it comes to cake.

I use this trick when I want to buy something online which I don't absolutely need. I'll add it to a wish list on Amazon (or even put it in my cart) and then leave the site. When I come back a few days or weeks later, I often find myself asking why I ever wanted that thing in the first place and remove it.

The same approach works for unimportant tasks/ideas as well. Put them on a list, and if after a few days you don't care about them anymore, just delete them and be happy that you didn't waste your time on that.

Added benefit: sometimes when you leave a site with something still in your cart, the site will later email you to tell you that the item is on sale.

This is actually my entire approach to spending. It got started when I was a kid or teen. When you want that stupid frivolous pair of $150 sunglasses but can't afford them, you can't help but put it off. If, at some point in the future, you have the money (or close to it) and you've been thinking about the same stupid thing for a year or two, maybe it's not so stupid! Or at least maybe it's worth splurging to make yourself happy. It would seem that postponing a purchase accomplishes nothing, but actually, sometimes you end up not making the purchase at all. And if you do, you're more satisfied by it, and have gone a longer time between satisfying those spending urges, and you spend less per year. The times when I say "ah, I'm just gonna have to buy all this stuff eventually, might as well just do it all at once" are sure to be the most wasteful.

An AFK analogue that I’m fond of is taking a photo of the box with the price visible. Unfailingly I see the photo days later and have the same puzzled thought.

But can you leave your friends behind cause they don't stop and if they don't stop they're no friends of mine?

The beauty of telling yourself "I can stop" comes in when you're really just lying to yourself to reduce the barrier of the first dish. "Oh, I'll just do a couple and then stop. Well I only have a few left..."

I am not quite sure but are you talking about something other than dishes? :)

The first paragraph is a reference to this gem from the 80's called "Safety Dance"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjPau5QYtYs

You can dish if you want to

Works great for exercise too: "just run for five minutes, then see how you feel", "just do the warm-up sets". Even if you stop, it's better than vegging on the couch.

Tell that to my wife/boss/whomever is depending on me getting the whole job done.

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