Kate Ditzler’s Reviews > Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much > Status Update

"We schedule and manage our time, but not our bandwidth." We rarely ask how much mental capacity we have, contrast this with physical capacity, where we know that eating, sleeping, and exercise play a role.

Abundance often is where scarcity begins, because when we have more than we need, we fail to plan for when we're going to have less -- short deadlines are helpful in this way, as well as steady, shorter payments (weekly v. monthly) in smoothing income. Abundance then scarcity is bad because scarcity can trap us. We need to plan buffer during times of abundance, even if they don't feel abundant so we have slack.

Snags are chances to procrastinate and forget. Small details, like forms (especially complicated ones), become places where we misplan, procrastinate and forget, and thus become huge stumbling blocks. In planning policies, we need to make as easy as possible for those with taxed bandwidth.

Remember, bandwidth varies through the year (before and after harvest) and throughout the day. Linking and timing tasks should help you manage your bandwidth.

To economize bandwidth, use clear and simple syntheses with concrete units ($ is more concrete than interest rates). Also consider ideas like a sabbath, which has no options, no dilemmas, no trade-offs, but also happens regularly with no need to plan to have what you're looking for. (Atkins diet is like this, too.)

At a moment of focus, set yourself up for future success by making good decisions now. Otherwise, your good intentions for the future which seems without scarcity will be maintained when it becomes the scarce present.

"one insight of the psychology of a scarcity is the need to protect against tunneling and to insulate against neglect: navigate so that bad choices are harder to make in a single moment of tunneling, and arrange it so that good behaviors require little vigilance yet are occasionally reevaluated."

It is easier to do the right thing once rather than repeat it. Wherever possible, convert vigilance choices into one-offs (enrolling in automatic bill pay requires a one off). Turn some potentially questionable decisions into kind that requires vigilance: cooling off periods for large purchases.

Choices are either one off or vigilance. "Vigilance choices require that we continuously repeat the choice, like going to the gym, saving for a rainy day, eating the right foods, spending time with our family."

Impulses also get into the tunnel, much like candy bars at the check out. Studies have been done on impulse savings, which create a reminder of goals and an opportunity to "purchase" or save towards it. Neglect, like automatic savings or enrollment into 401k, also stay outside the tunnel but still gaining slack.