The Overjustification Effect

I still remember the 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 when writing my thesis went from a 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 to a 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐟𝐮𝐥 experience.

For the first month, I had one sole focus. 𝐓𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞. So, every sentence I wrote had to be a “perfect-grade sentence.” and... I was miserable.

Each day, I went to a beautiful Co-Working Space (s/o THE 9TH) to be around wonderful people and write the first study I had run myself - and somehow, I did not enjoy it at all. Weird.

Luckily, resident legend Garrett wasn’t having it. This man has mastered the art of respectfully calling out your bullshit. So he kept challenging why I even cared about the grade - just asking simple questions anytime I'd complain.

And so I kept coming up with new (𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑦 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑑) perfectly plausible reasons why getting this perfect grade was so vitally important. However, after a month of constant questions, I ran out of answers. And then, it hit me... This is all ego, and I've built up delusional beliefs to support it:

1. I will never be able to control the grade. No matter how good - the moment I hand in the thesis, I have to give up control and see what grade comes my way.
2. No one cares about my grade. The only thing driving this pursuit is my ego.
3. My day-to-day is incredibly blessed, but I keep making myself miserable over this.

When your time is purely instrumental for some later reward, it's not surprising if your days feel like a chore, right?

But discarding the external goal - the one that's outside of your control - and just getting to work on the thing I can control - isn't that exciting?

So I went back to work, and to no one’s surprise, I wrote more & better chapters than when I despised the task. Trusting the process and aiming to hand in my best possible thesis, no matter the grade.

At the end of the day, I even ended up getting my precious perfect grade. Though I’m 100% certain I would’ve never gotten there had I kept my sole focus on it.

And as always - there’s also evidence for this😉.

Psychologists call this the Overjustification Effect - a simple matter of extrinsic motivation (→ The Grade) crowding out intrinsic motivation (→ The Joy of Writing). If the task is solely justified by extrinsic reward, there's no space left for the intrinsic joy of it.

So, to pay it forward - Where does your focus on the outcome drain the joy from your day-to-day?