Why stress interferes with planning

It’s the end of the week and you’re tired mentally and physically. The boss asked to work overtime on the weekend, colleagues shirk their duties. At home, in addition to everything else, your partner is sawing, dissatisfied with eternal employment. And suddenly you remember that there is a month left before the planned trip, and you still haven’t booked tickets, you don’t remember well which sights you wanted to visit, and you definitely haven’t told your boss anything yet. You are trying to pull yourself together, but the thought of having to think about a vacation is repulsive.

Why is this happening? Why is it difficult when the pressure builds in life? The ability and willingness to make plans suffers from a lack of self-control caused by stress. This gives us an additional reason to deal with the tension that prevents us from controlling ourselves and making the right decisions about the future.

Relationship between planning and self-control

Planning is the ability that distinguishes man from all other animals. Unlike other biological species, which are guided by instincts and live only in the present, humans can think about future events and anticipate them, flexibly adapting thoughts and actions to long-term goals.

The ability to predict the future allows you to use self-control to delay decisions in the hope of later receiving greater rewards. A study of children’s reactions to delayed gratification showed that those who were better at resisting the urge to receive immediate rewards were more successful in adulthood professionally and socially. There is also evidence that economies are stronger in countries where people prefer future rewards to immediate rewards.

Both of these abilities work in tandem. These types of mental activities involve not only thinking about the future, but also the need to make current decisions that will lead to a better, more desirable outcome and avoid possible obstacles along the way. They require some mental effort.

This active cognitive activity uses limited resources, so it is not always possible to engage in it. If resources have already gone to other costly tasks, such as stressful situations at work, there may be a reluctance to think about the future.

Since the ability to self-control varies from person to person and in different situations, scientists have conducted several studies to explore the relationship between self-control and planning, and to see what happens when a tired person feels a lack of self-control. They proposed the following hypotheses:

1. People with high self-control plan more.
2. Tiredness and exhaustion of willpower reduce this tendency.

Research methods and results

The first experiment was done to see if people with higher levels of consistent self-control were actually more predictive. During the experiment, 201 participants were first asked to quickly rate self-control on a certain scale, and then to tell how much they planned last week and how much they are going to next.

As predicted, the indicator was higher for those people who rated their constant self-control higher.

The second and third experiments measured the effect of weakened self-control, or exhaustion of willpower, on the willingness to plan. This time, the 105 student participants were randomly divided into two groups: a control group and a group that was induced to have willpower exhaustion.

To complete the writing task, the control group had to slightly change the text, and the second group had to avoid some common letters, such as A and H. This required constant blocking of habits and continuous efforts on which participants spent self-control resources.

Participants whose task involved exhausting willpower felt more mentally fatigued and, as a result, wanted to make plans less than participants in the control group.

The third was a field experiment that looked at how decision fatigue after shopping at IKEA affects people’s willingness to predict. The 112 participants were approached right in front of the store or right at the exit. They were asked to complete a questionnaire to rate their degree of fatigue and whether they would rather relax or make plans for the next month.

Again, as predicted, those who were tired of making shopping decisions were less predictive than those who were asked at the entrance. They haven’t even started the most tedious part yet – assembling the furniture.

Results and Conclusions

The above conclusions show that planning is a costly cognitive task that uses resources associated with other executive functions such as self-control and decision making. If these resources were depleted during previous tasks that require significant effort and concentration, then planning can cause rejection at a deep level. This is because it requires mental energy that a person cannot expend.

Therefore, after a busy week at work, the idea of ​​making plans may seem unattractive. This does not mean that you are a lazy or irresponsible person – you are too tired and cannot make the mental effort necessary for this. Give your brain a break and start planning when you’re back to normal.

Source: psychologytoday.com