John TierneyJohn Tierney

John Tierney

Authors of bestselling book, Willpower.

John Tierney always wanted to be a scientist but went into journalism because its peer-review process was a great deal easier to sneak through. Now a columnist for the Science Times section, Tierney previously wrote columns for the Op-Ed page, the Metro section and the Times Magazine. Before that he covered science for magazines like Discover, Hippocrates and Science 86.
Author Website

Philosopher's Notes on John Tierney's Books

Willpower
LockedPhilosopher's Notes

Willpower

by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney

Willpower. It’s ESSENTIAL to optimizing our lives. In fact, in their *great* book, Willpower, Roy Baumeister (one of the world’s leading scientific researchers on self-control) and John Tierney (science writer for the New York Times) tell us that “Improving willpower is the surest way to a better life.” In this Note, we’ll learn how to eat our way to willpower (seriously), how to exercise our self-control muscles, why “precommitment” is so important and how to win the willpower game with bright lines and a great offense. :)

Quotes by John Tierney

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To get the most out of your willpower, use it to set aside enough time to sleep. You’ll behave better the next day—and sleep more easily the next night.
Roy Baumeister & John Tierney
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People with good self-control mainly use it not for rescue in emergencies but rather to develop effective habits and routines in school and at work.
Roy Baumeister & John Tierney
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Self-control is a vital strength and key to success in life.
Roy Baumeister & John Tierney
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Forget about self-esteem. Work on self-control.
Roy Baumeister & John Tierney
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“Focus on one project at a time. If you set more than one self-improvement goal, you may succeed for a while by drawing on reserves to power through, but that just leaves you more depleted and more prone to serious mistakes later.”
Roy Baumeister & John Tierney
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The Two-Minute Rule: If something will take less than two minutes, don’t put it on a list. Get it out of the way immediately.
Roy Baumeister & John Tierney
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Improving willpower is the surest way to a better life.
Roy Baumeister & John Tierney
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For most of us, though, the problem is not a lack of goals but rather too many of them.
Roy Baumeister & John Tierney
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The results showed that a narrow, concrete, here-and-now focus works against self-control, whereas a broad, abstract, long-term focus supports it.
Roy Baumeister & John Tierney
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