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Shrink the effort or raise the reward
Shrinking the first step
Starting can be a huge motivational pull, so cutting the effort often means shrinking the first step. A three-month project from a manager looks formidable because there is no obvious place to begin. Research one area first, and when that is done, move to the second piece. That if-then chain turns one mountain into a series of small hills.
Rewarding early
The reward doesn't have to wait for the end either. A manager who praises the first finished piece gives a payoff that arrives early, so the whole project doesn't have to be done before anything feels earned.
Planning ahead
Planning ahead lowers the cost too. Every decision made on the fly makes the brain spend fuel, so working out the day or the week once, in a big sitting, leaves fewer costly choices later. Framing a task as novel, interesting, or meaningful to the person works on the reward side in the same way.
Why do if-then plans help people start?
Psychologist Peter Gollwitzer called them implementation intentions: a plan in the form of if situation X comes up, then I do action Y. A 2006 meta-analysis by Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran covered 94 studies and found a medium-to-large effect on goal attainment. The plan hands the trigger to the environment, so the person no longer has to decide in the moment whether to begin.
Why does an early reward keep people going?
Behaviorist Clark Hull reported in the 1930s that rats ran faster as they got closer to food. Ran Kivetz and colleagues found a similar goal-gradient effect in 2006 among coffee shop customers, who bought more often as their loyalty card neared a free drink. Progress that can be seen and rewarded along the way keeps the pull of the goal strong across a long task.
Why does something novel feel rewarding?
Dopamine-producing areas of the midbrain respond to new things. In a 2006 brain imaging study, Nico Bunzeck and Emrah Duzel found that the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area lit up more for new pictures than for familiar ones. Novelty works as a signal that something worth learning about may be nearby.
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