The Power of The To-Do List: How to Achieve Your Goals Faster by Alexander Tait

Author:Alexander Tait [Tait, Alexander]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-05-04T22:00:00+00:00

Task Focus

There are two ways you can look at any task: what you could gain or what you stand to lose. When you are thinking about potential gains, then you are said to be promotion-focused. On the other hand, a prevention focus is where you are thinking more about how you can avoid losses. Some of us are more promotion-focused and strongly believe in the saying “nothing ventured, nothing gained,” whereas some of us are more prevention-focused and have a “better safe than sorry” mindset. Any task can easily be given either a promotion or a prevention focus. To give a task a promotion focus, ask yourself, “What are all the good things that will result from doing this task?” To think about a task using a prevention focus, ask yourself, “What will I potentially lose if I don’t do this?” In general, having a promotion focus leads to enthusiasm and motivation in the short-term. In contrast, having a prevention focus is better for maintaining consistency over the long-term. For example, two studies into smoking cessation and weight loss programs found that participants who had more of a promotion focus had a higher quit smoking rate and lost more weight during the first six months. However, the prevention-focused people were more likely to still be smoke-free and to have maintained their weight loss over the following year[14].

Therefore, one strategy is to start by giving tasks related to new goals a promotion focus. This promotion focus will help to give you an initial boost in motivation. Once this effect wears off then move to using a prevention focus to maintain progress over the long term.

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