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How the present bias impacts your success

How the present bias impacts your success

It’s tempting to take a reward that is available right now, but the cognitive bias can harm your future self.

For example:

  • You may work hard to get a place on a law degree course, but then give in to the present bias and spend most of your time socialising at the expense of your exams.
  • Being offered a higher salary can cause us to forget about our long-term career goals.
  • The desire for instant gratification can lead to reckless spending rather than putting money into a long-term investment.
  • Procrastination can prevent you from making progress on a project well before the deadline.

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Illustrating the present bias

The classic experiment to show if the present bias is at play is to ask, "would you prefer $100 today or $110 in one week?" The desire for instant reward will cause many to take the $100 now rather than waiting for the reward.

A study showed stronger activation in reward-related areas of th...

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Strategies to manage the present bias

Managing the present bias consists in staying mindful of your long-term goals.

  • Write down your long-term goals. Create a list of what you want to achieve this year or over the next few years. Then, when you're faced with a choice between different rewards, refer back t...

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Seizing short-term opportunities

Seizing short-term opportunities

Grabbing short-term opportunities can lead you to settle for a small present reward rather than wait for a larger future reward.

This tendency is known as the present bias. While it may feel good at the time, it can negatively impact long-term planning and decision-making.

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How To Say No To Yourself

How To Say No To Yourself

When you give in to temptations, you become a slave to your impulses. The resulting short-term gratification often comes at the expense of long-term fulfilment. 

When you resist temptations with declarative statements that begin with “I don’t…” you become the architect of a life built upon ...

Present Bias

We tend to choose a smaller, immediate reward over a larger reward in the future. For example, playing video games is more enjoyable than writing or coding or designing.

What you can do about it:

  • Help your future self...

How to avoid the zero-sum bias

To reduce the degree to which you experience the zero-sum bias, you need to identify cases where you assume that a certain situation is zero-sum, and then assess the situation rationally in order to identify whether it is actually zero-sum, which you can do, for example, by asking yours...

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