Instant gratification means having something you want right now, as opposed to waiting for a potentially better future option. One marshmallow now instead of two later is creating problems down the line in many ways. Relationships, self-worth and mental health also tend to suffer from impulsivity, not only finances.
What is time preference?
Time preference, or time discount, makes people give more value to something they have now, rather than the same thing later. It’s closely related to instant gratification: high time preference makes people more prone to seek instant gratification. It’s why some children will rather have one marshmallow now rather than 2 later, though the actual study was more complex. This pattern goes on and, in adult situations, it sometimes looks like recreationary spending instead of saving, or any number of such things.
One would definitely like a vacation more than a few gadgets. But right now a gaming console is on sale, an espresso machine later this week. You upgrade your phone next month and that was the vacation money. None of these purchases really bring as much joy as a dream holiday does, but they seemed more achievable. This isn’t as straightforward as the experiment, but influenced bu the many variables and choices of real life. Beyond the often difficult to interpret conclusionsof the marshmallow experiment, waiting for later has proven benefits.
It’s a difficult to isolate pattern of choices. But a key factor of all this is not being able to see as vividly how much one would like something in the future. It seems more distant, and the wait is painful. Having something now is a way easier route to happiness.
We should see things for what they are, not for when we get them.
Dissociation- Looks like a problem for future me!
Thinking long-term can help with optimism and a sense of control – key indicators of mental wellbeing.
Inspiration is necessary for an artist – ending the endless scrolling is even more productive, though. Many young, aspiring artists look at tutorials, courses and follow other artists on social media. It’s amazing to have access to all this training, especially as a self-taught creative, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of actually creating something. Saying “I’m looking for inspiration for my art” is great, and feels better than saying “I scroll looking for envy and excuses.” But unless one gets started and creates some art, can it really be called inspiration?
I’m just saying, raising funds for buliding a hospital and not building any wouldn’t look good to me. 🙂
Why it’s important
The ability to resist the pull towards instant gratification has been considered an essential life skill. It allows you to prioritise your actions so they make a real difference. An efficient to do list is similar: it shouldn’t include meaningless things just so you can tick them off. Instant gratification causes pain, regret, impatience and procrastination – it’s just not allowing you to focus the effort on what matters.
Your efforts should be spent doing something meaningful. Just as cleaning the house isn’t a priority during an exam session, more impactful or long-term things also have a time and place they are useful, and a time and place they’re just an excuse. The things we choose to spend our resources on – time, attention, money- could surely be spent on something we want right now. Yet, it’s almost always wiser to take our long term goals into account.
Daily choices add up to make a big difference. Buying the first nice thing on sale will only make a small dent in your finances. But many small dents erode your capacity to save for a car, holiday, or affording time to do your own thing. In other cases, when it’s not slowly siphoning resources away from important things, it can cause missed opportunities. Sometimes, impulsivity has immediate consequences. The carelessness and lack of connection to one’s future can lead people to say things they regret, ruin relationships. Or ruin their financial situation quickly. Getting oneself into risky situations is even worse than a string of small, unneeded purchases.
The best way to delay gratification
The results of the experiment showed something amazing that the researchers didn’t expect to see.Having the reward in front of us only reminds us of what we haven’t achieved and creates more frustration. Children who could see, or were reminded of their reward tended to want it sooner. Reminders cause impatience.
Staying focused on what you want is important, but doing something is even more important – especially something different. The same logic applies to imposing a wait period before any purchase. Time constraints such as the 30-day rule can help limit reckless spending, but they also help limit other impulsive behaviours such as texting an ex, starting a difficult topic of conversation before you have a plan, and so on. Carelessness is mostly a matter of timing.
The takeaway: Get some time, and something else to do during that time.
Distraction helps people stick to their commitments in the face of impulsive tendencies.
Is instant gratification ever worth it?
There are cases in which it’s really smarter, wiser to take what you have: when it’s needed now.
In general, having a high time valuation hurts our future selves more than it helps our present situation. This, however, implies the better future thing is still there after the wait- and we still need it. But when there is no guarantee the better thing will actually be there at the end of the wait, it makes sense to take it now. If one is starving, a meal today may be more important than two later, or if one needs a place to live in, a worse home now is better than a mansion after a year of homelessness- not that such a situation can happen often.
In the end…
Real improvement to one’s life is achieved by long-term thinking, planning and preparation. Treating our future selves with the same priority we give ourselves puts things into perspective and helps. Sometimes though, there are great risks to waiting: the thing later may not be there and may not be needed. But in general, delaying gratification is a good thing, and even just timing the impulsive action is likely to be effective. It takes less willpower than commiting to complete avoidance.
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