Rima Grace

Why is my brain working overtime to get me out of this?

I'll tell you how this phone call ends later in the episode, but first, I really wanted to dig into the psychology.

So I called up Katie Milkman.

She's a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and she spends her days studying decision-making and behavior.

I gave her a rundown of my predicament.

It's like basically if you don't feel the effects of whatever it is that's looming, then it's easy to put it off.

Yeah.

I like that you use the phrase operating system because it makes me feel like it's detached from who I am.

Like, oh, that's a separate entity that is controlling my life and it's not me anymore.

But how much of it do you think comes down to us just not knowing the potential payoff?

Earlier today, I was actually crunching the numbers and

And it always, like when I actually sit down and do that, it always astonishes me a little.

I'm like, wow, if I save $1,000 in 30 years, that could be $10,000.

If I save $10,000 in 30 years, that could be $100,000.

Well, speaking of which, so then how do we get ourselves like what are some science backed ways we can overcome this kind of procrastination when it comes to our financial lives?

Okay, but then for those of us who put it on the calendar and then cancel it?

Do it with your friends.

But I can imagine it might make people, some people feel bad about themselves.

Like, oh man, I have to resort to something like this in order to get a very basic task done.

Yeah, this feels very punitive.