Under harsher living conditions, we didn’t know if we would survive till the end of the day — so we evolved to choose the immediate things that helped us survive. Our brains are wired to choose immediate sure-thing rewards, not the potential of a future.

So.. am I screwed?

No! There are ways in which you can get better at making choices that are good for you.

1 . Empathize with your future self

You put things off to future you because it’s easy. It’s easy to assume that future you is boundless with energy, drive and motivation.

But unfortunately, that perfect vision of future you is not reality.

Before putting something off, think about your future mental state — how tired, drained and sleepy you will be. It helps you evaluate if future you will actually get the job done. Consciously evaluating and making decisions about future you serves as motivation to actually do the things you wanted today.

2. Precommitment

Hyperbolic discounting tells us that we act more patiently when decisions are far away.

Precommitment is a way to to lock future you into decisions, now. You increase your chance of success by removing temptation from future you. Make it hard for your future self to back out.

Committing to saving part of your income for retirement

Research shows that people who commit to saving portions of their future paychecks to their retirement end up saving more money than others.

That’s how subscription meal delivery systems like Freshly or Blue Apron work. You subscribe to healthy food that shows up a week later. You make it more likely that you’ll eat healthier in a week’s time.

Other ways of committing to getting something done are planning your day out, or telling someone to hold you accountable.

3. Break down big goals into small manageable chunks

You set big, lofty goals, because they yield massive rewards. However, big goals (like learning to speak Spanish or losing 20 pounds) take a while to achieve - so the big reward only happens far in the future.

Given the choice between watching TV now (which has an immediate, but smaller reward) and working toward your goal (big, but far away reward), you fall victim to hyperbolic discounting and choose the immediate and small reward.

By breaking down big goals into smaller tasks, your reward comes after the completion of each chunk. That way, the reward is no longer a far off possibility but something that is more immediate and guaranteed.