Write down exit criteria before starting
Grade BBig benefitTimeFreeLittle timeSome willpower
Before you start, write one sentence: if a given target is still not met by a given date, stop. Put several studies together, and this way of writing does help people pull out of things that were never going to get done. What you save is all the time you would otherwise keep pouring in.
- Cost
- No cost at all. Spend 5 minutes when you start, and write it clearly: if a given target is not met by a given date, stop. The hard part is owning it when that day comes. Stopping in front of other people costs a bit of face.
- Benefit
- Put several studies of implementation intentions together, and an "if... then..." set in advance also helps people pull out of things that were never going to get done. The original wording is disengagement from failing courses of action. The time saved is the time you would otherwise have kept putting in.
- Notes
- Set the exit criteria at the start, while you are still calm. Setting them later gets skewed by costs already put in. When you judge, look only at future input and future return; see item 3. Also, being willing to pull out is only one sub-finding in a summary of several studies. Nobody has separately calculated how much time it can save.
Sources · 1
- Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119. doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1