Balcetis: Overcommitment stems from evaluating distant tasks by desirability over feasibility
Dr. Emily Balcetis · Emily Balcetis: Setting and Achieving Goals · Dec 13, 2022 · at 55:16
Dr. Emily Balcetis and Shane Parrish discuss why people readily agree to future obligations on their calendar that they later regret when the date arrives.
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“We start thinking about what's feasible when we're in a more psychologically close point in time or a moment of consideration, and we're thinking about what's desirable when it's further removed from time. So that's just another tactic we have to sort of take back control of our brain is knowing that when we have a greater distance from something, we start thinking about, do I want to do this? Is, is this related to something that would be of interest to me And in the here and now, it's about feasibility. So that's often why we overcommit, is that there's probably a lot of things that we really want to do that feasibly, when it comes down to thinking about what can I actually get done today, isn't possible.”
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