Evening-Joakim vs Morning-Joakim

Here's something I have been thinking about for a while. Others probably call it procrastination or time inconsistency or myopic choice. The last two concepts I first encountered in Oxford historian Avner Offer's book from 2006 The Challenge of Affluence.

The general idea is that people sometimes have inconsistent plans for themselves, in the short vs the long run. My long-term goal might be to work out, get fit and ripped. So I work out. But my short-term goal on a given Friday night involves chilling in the sofa with drinks, chocolate and chips. Somehow, it does not occur to me that those two goals run counter to one another. Time inconsistency, Offer then goes on to claim - rather unconvincingly - invalidates invisible hand analogies or any implementation of free markets. That's a story for another day.

Now I just wanna compare the mentalities of two persons very familiar to me. In a way they're my closes relatives, or in the words of Mr. Bennet: "[your nerves] are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least."

Evening-Joakim says: Tomorrow I'll wake up at 06.00, make beautiful healthy breakfast and do some reading.
Morning-Joakim says: Screw 6 am - that's not even human. I'll do, em, 7. Ouuw. Another 20 minutes won't matter. And I'll have a quick breakfast and do the reading on the bus. Won't matter.

Evening-Joakim: This weekend I'll go for a long run, clean my room, read up on the lecture readings I missed out this week, work through 1 or 2 of the titles on my incredibly lengthy list of useful readings and then go out with friends in the evening.

Morning-Joakim: Hell no. I'm too tired to run - and besides I'm getting ill. My room is pretty clean, I'll do it next week. And I don't have to read all those lecture readings, most won't even matter for the exam. And who cares about the folder named 'Econ Readings', anyway - it keeps growing faster than I can read it. Won't matter.

Evening-Joakim: Tomorrow I'll wake-up early, take the train to some place nice, walk around, experience nature or read a good book.
Morning-Joakim: 07.00 already! Ouuuw... I'll go tomorrow instead. Now: 2h snooze.

Crap.

Sometimes I overcome this, sometimes I don't. Yesterday I certainly did not. Today, I kinda did (got out of bed 06.30).

We're getting there. Let's see if this #YogaEveryDay challenge helps with the balance.