I propose that (for whatever reason) after 9:00 p.m., I enter a state of behavioral inertia such that I almost effortlessly continue doing whatever I have started doing but have a great deal of difficulty stopping the activity. So once I start working, I keep working, and once I start snacking, I keep snacking. This view is consistent with the feeling I have several times per week that I'm only a little bit hungry but continue eating past the point where my hunger is satiated even though I do not get any great enjoyment from doing so. It would be interesting if it truly were the case that I am experiencing a sort of selective self-regulatory impairment (that affects stopping behavior but not initiating behavior, fixing attention, controlling thoughts, managing emotions, or any of the other myriad things that are theorized to draw on a common regulatory resource).
Because one well-established method of counteracting regulatory depletion is to establish implementation intentions, and specific dieting rules seem to work well for me in taking things outside the realm of "willpower" and into the realm of habit, I am establishing a new Gremlins-esque rule for not eating after 9:00 p.m. We'll see whether public commitment has its expected salutary effect on my living up to this plan.
Have you noticed any time-of-day patterns in your self-regulatory ability?
4 comments:
Well, back in the rabbit times I noted that I was able to clean the rabbit cage more effectively in early morning than other times. In pop-Freudian terms, my ego was seizing control to get it done before my id was fully awake.
Interesting. I think it's easier for me to get started on something in the morning, but easier to keep doing something at night.
The closest I can think of is that I am best at making myself do housework just before I have to go somewhere or just before someone is to come over. Housework is a thing that I absolutely don't mind interrupting and when something else is due to happen, I know I won't be stuck doing housework for very long.
It's hard for me to do anything in the morning, including getting up. I usually need some external pressure, like having to be somewhere at a specific time. Otherwise, it's usually after lunch before anything productive happens, even when it's something I really want to do.
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