Most people’s mental models of energy are flawed: they think there’s a ‘tank’ of energy that gets depleted as you spend it. This may be roughly true for physical energy, but mental energy is different: spending mental energy on things that you consider productive or important gives you more mental energy for other things: a positive feedback loop.

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Neuroscientists now know there is no “executive” part of the brain that has absolute authority over the others. Various parts of the brain with different priorities and roles often fire simultaneously, and which part wins out depends on our innate biology and the specifics of the circumstances, not on an aspect of character called “self-discipline”

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You're on the sofa. You know you should get up - exercise, read, cook a real meal - but you can't make yourself move. So you sit there, not resting, not working, scrolling through your phone while mentally rehearsing the tasks you're not doing. You tell yourself you're lazy. You're not. But to understand why this keeps... See more