Dr. Micaela

Without fail, the first time I do this with people, they're like specifically for this one, right?

The replacement behavior is spend eight hours working on my dissertation.

Okay.

Yeah.

Let's do that.

Let's do that.

Let's look at the pros and cons about working on my dissertation for eight hours.

Let me tell you that bitch is all cons.

Okay.

Because that's why we don't do it because it's all stuff I don't want to do.

And then we put on there, the pros be done with my dissertation.

Okay, obviously I want to be done with my dissertation, but in this moment, right now, I'm not going to be done with my dissertation.

So the pro of being done is fake.

My brain cannot perceive that as a meaningful pro.

And so when I try to make up these things that I'm supposed to think of as what I want to do, I'm just making it impossible for myself because my brain is responding to the behavior science associated with this task.

And so don't say, work on my dissertation for eight hours.

Say, go to a coffee shop.

to work on my computer, okay?

So now when I'm making the choice to pull up TikTok on my phone or to go get it from the other room, I'm choosing, am I going to go get my phone or I'm gonna go pack my bag to go to the coffee shop?

And that is a different choice, right?