# Willpower and ADHD: What You NEED to Know if You Want to Reach Your Goals

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** How to ADHD
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAt6PqCMvjU
- **Дата:** 03.06.2025
- **Длительность:** 15:10
- **Просмотры:** 93,086
- **Источник:** https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/15289

## Описание

Thanks to Sunsama for sponsoring this video! It’s an ADHD-friendly tool that works with your brain, not against it! Give Sunsama a try. Right now they’re offering a free 30-day trial with no credit card needed if you use my link: https://www.sunsama.com/a/jessicafromhowtoadhd

So... it turns out... willpower is more complicated than we thought! But why did it ring true for some and not for others? That's a good question! Initiating three way call! 📞 

📝  CITATIONS
💬 EGO DEPLETION - ANALYSIS OF ARGUMENTS 
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1088868318762183?casa_token=KB2h-MzzvJwAAA[…]_TgfutpN1ogwG04R8X7YS0sYfWcrCGokmXscltbw21Kws7eziH0fa4kz3Q

⏪ REVERSE EGO DEPLETION
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25822462/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797611404901
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28581300/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20053029/

🏁 GOAL EVALUATION
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20230067/

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## Транскрипт

### Intro []

Hello. Hi. Yeah. No, glad I caught you. Domino's? It's me again. Oh, no. I I'm good. I don't need a pizza. I'm actually in the middle of working on something. I'm not calling about pizza. You remember our last call in which I gave you all these tips on how to make it so you didn't have to rely on your willpower? Yes. And thank you. It's been working out great for me. That was good advice, but not for the reason I thought. In fact, some of what I shared may have actually made things worse. What do you mean worse? Last time we talked, I explained why we shouldn't rely on our willpower. And that explanation was based on the ego depletion theory. According to ego depletion theory, all things we actively choose to do or stop ourselves from doing draw from a limited resource of energy, your willpower. But we got a lot of comments saying things like, "Wait, hasn't that been debunked? " Hello, brains. So, I decided to look into it and yes, sort of. Well, it's evolved. It turns out willpower is a lot more complicated than we thought. I'll let Dr. Munoz explain. Please hold. Who's Dr. Munoz? Initiating three-way call.

### An Expert on Self Control [1:14]

Hello, I'm Dr. Anhel Munoz. I'm a professor of psychology at Flaggler College in Sustain, Florida. Um, I am primarily a teacher and my classes are focused around learning, memory, education, and sometimes motivation and self-regulation, self-control. There are classes on self-control. Wow, that would have been helpful for me when I was in college, you know, before I dropped out. So, is willpower not a depletable

### is willpower not depletable? [1:37]

resource? I would say the story is more complicated. It is fair to say that ego depletion is inconclusive and faces several conceptual, methodological, and ethical challenges. Some researchers argue that it might not even exist at all. One of the main challenges that ego depletion faces is replicability. Uh, one of the basics of good science is replication. This means conducting the same study again to see if you get the same results. Think of it like following a baking recipe. Exactly. If we use the same ingredients, measurements, oven temperature, and timing, then you should expect roughly the same cake every time. If the cake comes out differently, you know, the recipe needs some work, right? And it's problematic when people are counting on the results. Medium pizza, regular ham, extra pineapple. There you go. Enjoy your pizza. When researchers attempted to replicate studies that show an ego depletion effect with larger groups and stricter methods, at least compared to the earlier studies, ego depletion often times experienced difficulties. There are other issues. Some researchers have pointed out that certain data handling choices may have exaggerated how strong the ego depletion effect really is in a given study. And this may have happened in multiple studies. Wait, so they manipulated the data to make it seem like the results were a little more impressive than they maybe were? There is also publication bias at work. Early studies showing a clear willpower drop made it into journals while those finding no drop often went unpublished. Then it would seem like there's always these results when most of the time maybe there's not. Let me bring your

### The Plot Twist: Reverse Ego Depletion [3:21]

attention to an interesting twist. Some well-controlled experiments actually found the opposite. Doing one self-control task can invigorate your willpower for a subsequent task. Researchers think this is driven by shifts in motivation, attention, small boosts in mood, and your actual beliefs about willpower. They call this finding reverse ego depletion, which is literally the opposite of ego depletion. Reverse ego depletion? What's that the reason I called? That is a really good question. So really instead of your willpower running out, an initial challenge gives you more willpower for what comes next, imagine starting your morning by uh resisting the urge to check social media. You would think you will be depleted, but instead you might feel sharper and more motivated to dive into the work that you have to do. It shows that self-control isn't just about running out of fuel. Your mindset can turn each act of restraint into power. In fact, after performing a task that requires effort, people who believe willpower is a limited resource show a deep in their performance, effort, persistence, you know, the traditional ego depletion effect. Uh, but when they see self-control as energizing, their performance on the next task actually improves. You see why I had to call you back? If me teaching you that willpower is a depletable resource made you believe resource, then that could become kind of

### Why do we struggle with choices then? [4:44]

a self-fulfilling prophecy in which I make worse choices simply because I believe my willpower is depleted. Wow. Yeah, thank you for calling me back. Although, to be honest, before you told me that willpower was a depletable resource, it already kind of seemed like it was. That's why your explanation made sense to me. I do tend to make worse choices after I've expended a bunch of cognitive effort. So, what's up with that? Good question, Dr. Munoz. If willpower isn't a depletable resource, like fuel in a gas tank, why do people make worse choices at the end of a long day at work, even if they've never heard of ego depletion? It really comes down to two things. The beliefs we have internalized about willpower and how tired we actually are. Let me tell you about one of my favorite studies. Uh this was conducted by Krishna Savani in 2017, I think. Uh so he showed that our beliefs about willpower determine whether we run out or get a boost of willpower. uh so in western societies where we see effort as draining uh we see the classic drop in performance and effort after a tough task. But in cultures like India for example where effort is seen as invigorating or energizing uh we essentially see the opposite. They actually perform better on the next challenge. Now, at the same time, real fatigue from long hours, poor sleep, stress at work, or even hunger, I mean, does sap your energy, attention, and motivation. When you feel truly worn out, your brain naturally defaults to quick and more rewarding choices. Speaking of which, I need to eat something. What do I have here? All right, have some healthy granola. What is this? While Dr. Munoz makes choices that will help support him toward his goals, let's talk about something that can support you toward your goals. Sansama. Want to get stuff done in a sustainable way without burning out? Sansama's got you. Sansama is my favorite way to plan my day and I recommend it all the time because built into it is a lot of the tools that I recommend to people with ADHD all the time, like time blocking. With time blocking, you basically set aside chunks of time to do certain tasks. This method can improve productivity, reduce stress, and make it easier to prioritize and complete tasks. We usually think of time blocking as putting time on our calendar to get stuff done. But Sansama has a really clever way of doing it. In addition to being able to easily pull events over from your calendar, you can also create blocks of time for each task that don't have to be done at any specific time. And then make sure you actually have enough time in your workday to get it all done. I used to dive right into my day because I had so much to do. And to be honest, sometimes I still do, but I really noticed difference on the days that I take the time to plan my day. I don't like taking that time, which is why it's really great that Sansama makes it super quick and easy to do it. Finally, focusing on one task at a time. ADCers are not any better at multitasking than our neurotypical peers, but we are way more likely to do it, which is a problem. When we multitask, there are more errors. We don't work as deeply. There are actually a lot of problems with multitasking. It's not as efficient as we think it is because every time we switch between tasks, we're losing a little bit of time in that transition between tasks. Um, and then it can take us time to refocus. Sama has this really great feature called focus mode. Focus mode allows you to get all of your tasks out of sight except the one you're currently working on. What's super cool about this is you can have the focus mode up in Sansa. can have the app open on your computer or if you minimize the app, you can still see the little focus bar that pops up with whatever you're doing. So, say you're, I don't know, working on a script or something, you can still see the little bar that tells you what you're working on, and it will chime and let you know when it's time to switch to the next task. I think Sansama is honestly the reason that I no longer burn out doing what I do. I've been doing this for 9 years, still here, still making videos. Thank you, Sansama. If you'd like to try Sansama, go to www. sensama. com. sama. com/ a/jessica from how to eat HD or you can just click on my link in the description below and you don't even need a credit card upfront so you can try it risk-f free and see if you like

### Process Model of Self Control [8:57]

it. So it's not that I've run out of willpower. Sometimes I'm just too tired to make the choices I want to make. Possibly. Let me introduce you to the process model of self-control. It says that when fatigue sets in, your mind quietly reshuffles three things. First, your motivation leans towards minimal effort and fastest payoff. Second, your attention is looking for that which is easiest and most rewarding. And third, monitoring your goals, important goals, long-term goals fall into the background in this picture. Uh, put it simply, when you're tired, your brain reweights the tradeoff. So, back to the example you gave in your previous video. So finishing work is high effort with a delay reward while playing video games is low in effort with instant fun. So the controller wins. Uh when you're rested effort feels cheaper and rewards feel closer. That tracks actually some days when I'm sleep deprived things feel like such an uphill battle that the effort doesn't feel worth it and I end up giving up. Wait, is that why I dropped out of college? Because when my sleep-d deprived self realized I wasn't making progress toward my degree fast enough, it felt like the effort wasn't worth it anymore and I went looking for a quicker reward. That is exactly the kind of a spiral the process model predicts. Individuals with ADHD feel this struggle even more. It is easier to go for rewards you can get right now. So far off goals lose their appeal faster. Uh when finishing a degree feels miles away and progress is hard to see, your motivation shifts towards something that pays off now and your attention gets hijacked by easy rewards. So dropping out can feel like the sensible choice. Yes, that's exactly what happened and now I regret it. If you make the payoff

### How do we reach goals then? [10:48]

feel closer and clearer, then you could experience different results. In a goal setting study, researchers asked the students to spend a couple of hours writing about their desirable or ideal futures. Then they were asked to formulate a specific personal goals, the steps to reach them and the obstacles they will encounter and how they will overcome them. And obviously a lot of these goals and obstacles were related to academic settings. Uh so four months later those students had higher GPA. They were far less likely to cut their course loads and they were less stressed out compared to their classmates who did a completely different activity. Now, why did it help? Laying out concrete sub goals and quick checkpoints shrinks the distance between effort and reward. Little wins keep motivation, attention, and goal tracking aligned. So, the uphill hike feels like a series of reachable steps instead of a mountain that isn't really worth the effort.

### Was our advice still good? [11:50]

Yeah, I definitely reach my goals more often when I write them down. That's my first video, actually. Wait, so was the advice she gave me of not relying on your willpower still good advice? Because it was working for me? Absolutely. Those tips are still solid. Uh whether self-control failures happen because a willpower tank runs low or because motivation, attention, and goal tracking shift, the same strategies help, just for slightly different reasons. For example, say you're on a diet. A good strategy is to pre-choose and prepare your meals for the week ahead of time. You might want to use the weekend to do this. Um, it makes it easy to eat what you planned and hard to default to take out and junk food and fast food. It really cuts out dozens of what should I eat decisions, leaving less room for your motivation and attention to pursue choices that are not consistent with your goals. Um, you could also pair dinner with a rerun of your favorite show. Uh, so the healthy meal comes with an immediate reward. Oh, I do this all the time. I'm actually a huge fan of it because we're not going to get the dopamine boost, the reward of this thing feels good. we can pair it with something that does feel good. This is actually how I trained myself to enjoy writing. Wow, it's cool that we know so much more about self-control and willpower. Now, the process model seems like it explains everything. No, far from it. Uh we have motivational

### Does the Process Model explain EVERYTHING? [13:17]

intensity theory, effort reward imbalance, uh expected value of control, opportunity cost uh models, strength model, resource depletion, uh the process model, the list goes on. It really is a work in progress. I mean, likely different models explain different situations and circumstances better than others. So, what do you

### The Takeaway [13:38]

think the most important thing is that people need to know? Like, what can I put on this post-it note to replace my one about willpower? To remind myself of what I need to know to be able to make better decisions. Willpower isn't really a fuel tank. It really shifts with your beliefs, motivation, what grabs your attention, your goals, and what you value. So remove needless friction, set good goals, and add quick wins so your effort goes straight to what matters and when it matters. Remove needless friction, set good goals, and add quick wins so your effort goes straight to what matters when it matters. Thank you, Dr. Munoz. Thank you

### Outro [14:26]

to our brain advocates and all our Patreon brains for supporting the work that we do. It's been so fun to play around with characters and talk to experts. And we couldn't do what we do if it wasn't for your support. If any of you want to know more about this complicated thing called willpower and self-control, I will share citations for all of the studies that informed this video in the description below. Like, subscribe, click all the things, and we will see you next video. Bye, brains.