Why is it so hard to say no? Why the heck do I find myself doing things I don't really want to do?

In the newsroom where I ostensibly work, I sit right next to that table - the one the people from other publications call "the table of perpetual indulgence." It usually features baked goods and junk food - great vats of candy, tubs of animal crackers, a living sea of bite-sized 3 Musketeers and Special Dark bars. It is, put simply, bad for me to be sitting here. I'm always walking off to the printer then realizing that somehow I've wound up in the opposite direction, lifting syrup-filled brownies toward my mouth. Well, I think I just found out the reason why.

Canadian researchers Michael Inzlicht and Jennifer N. Gutsell recently published a study about self-control in the journal Psychological Science. They hooked 40 people up to EEGs and had them watch animal snuff films - "a disturbing wildlife documentary" is how that summary puts it. Half of them were asked not to show any emotion, while the other half weren't given any instructions. They just had to watch.

Then, both groups were given a fast-paced color-matching test - one that depended on a certain level of willpower to complete. The emotionally suppressed group flunked. Whatever kind of fuel willpower burns, they'd run out of it.

The researchers conclude: "People have a limited amount of self-control, and tasks requiring controlled, willful action quickly deplete this central resource. Exerting self-control on one task impairs performance on subsequent tasks requiring the same resource."

So if I want to get anything done, I'd better marshal my reserves carefully. There's a more cheerful note, however. You can get more self-control by practicing, and by thinking things through.

As summarized in that article....

Small goals, I guess. I suppose even reading these words right here is a step in the right direction.

If you've got academic access, here's the full text of the study "Running on Empty: Neural Signals for Self-Control Failure".