Everyone knows how important it is to set goals.  Goals give you direction.  Goals give you focus.  Goals keep you from spreading yourself too thin (as long as you don't set too many of them).  But goals cannot force you to stick to them.  And as we all know sometimes it's hard to stick to a goal especially when there are more tempting things to do besides the activities that will help us reach our goal.

So how avoid temptation so that we can reach our goals?

Research into human motivation reveals a key.  A key so simple that you'll be tempted to overlook it for more elaborate methods of motivation.

To help you avoid missing out on this information I'll describe some of the research so you'll believe this simple technique will work.

Several studies have shown that people often cheat when given the opportunity on simple tasks that produce financial rewards.  For example when taking a test in which you get paid for every correct answer.

They've also found that you can reduce cheating in a very simple way.

Just ask participants to think about morality before taking the exam.

In several studies of over 2,000 people this has been done by asking college students to think about things ranging from the 10 commandments to a schools honor code.  And each time cheating was almost non-existent when they thought about morality first.  This was so effective that even when students attended schools without honor codes the result was the same--less cheating.

So how can you use this to avoid the temptation to watch TV instead of getting some work done?

Simple.

You must expose yourself to the motivating idea BEFORE tempation strikes.

This means that if you were trying to get yourself to write a novel by completing 5 pages every evening and were having a hard time getting yourself to do it that you'd want to think about why you're doing that before you are tempted to avoid it.

This could be as simple as writing a note to yourself that you'll see when entering your home each evening.  Or if writing in the morning, something you see when you wake up.

The important thing is the reminder of why you are doing it must come BEFORE the temptation to avoid the activity or else it will be less effective.

So try this tip today and see how it transforms your productivity.