Instant Gratification and Delay Discounting

Instant gratification is the unfortunate result of our primate brain. In the past you would choose the definite now over the idealistic future. This is still with us. Our brain chooses the reward now rather than the better reward later. The later may not ever come, we may die before then, so why would we wait for it?

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Believe it or not, when I was a teenager (Which was not that long ago actually) I rarely read any books. There was one or two here and there, and I enjoyed reading! I just did not have the discipline nor the wants to focus on it. In 2023 I decided to change that. I wanted to try a new hobby that would take my mind off of a few things that I had going on in my life at the time. I have a very varied taste in books, and the first two that I read were “Burmese Days” by George Orwell and “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, and I finished both of them on the same day, 8th January, 2023. You may notice that I took this challenge seriously given that in the first week I read two books already. It later turned out that that was unnecessary, since I finished that year with 88 read books; After each book read I would add it to my Notion template (By now I moved to a full paper version) and quickly summarise the book, give my impressions on it, top 3 quotes, and answered a few question. What have I learned from it? Strong discipline for one. I found out that I liked being on a deadline. Having reading as a task was enjoyable. I like tasks! One of the biggest reasons that I have a Bujo. But apart from discipline, I also learned a lot of perspectives. I think this is the one thing that every book without exception gives you, some give you more and some give you less. This reminded me a lot of David Foster Wallace’s speech “This is water”. You get into the writer’s mind, and see with his lenses for just a short while. This is the value of books. To truly extend your viewpoint to other people for brief periods of time.

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I’ve been a heavy journaler my whole life. And I plan to continue this mindful practice for a long time to come. I enjoy grabbing one of my fountain pens, turning off every distraction, and putting words onto paper. Since I started in 2018 I have been keeping at least one active journal, eventually branching out to Bullet Journaling. Because the amount of journaling I do every day is plentiful, I haven’t considered picking up other methods to improve. I found what worked for me and stuck with it. I didn’t even know what Morning Pages were . One day I got curious and stumbled upon a book by Julia Cameron. I liked the idea from the start. Three pages of uninterrupted writing each day. I picked up this habit intuitively with no practice necessary. Every morning I drank my coffee, ate my breakfast, the sat down for thirty minutes straight. Non-Stop. I didn’t expect any changes, even less so after only a week. But I did notice that my mind was clearer. Most notably it was easier to focus. I started listening to Lo-Fi again, and distractions didn’t bother me as much. I was surprised that such a small change had such an impact. It’s not life changing, these are all small things. But they are things I found that work for me. It’s important to keep an open mind. You may stumble onto a technique that may change your life.

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Writing down my knowledge with a fountain pen in different exotic colours motivates me. When I get a new colour, I want to study more. Anytime I ink up my pen, I get the urge to get through just one chapter of a book, just so that I can write more.

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introduction

A lot of people struggle with organising their life. Different work or university deadlines, events, tasks, and even simple note-taking. What method do i use to organise my life? Bullet Journaling has revolutionised how i organise my studies. Without it i’d be completely lost on what to study, and when to start what. It is an incredible tool, and i cannot express enough how useful it is to me.

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