Our brains are adaptation machines. They get better at tasks they repeatedly do. This means that you can improve your ability to make good choices and overcome temptation with practice.

Good sleep, good nutrition and regular exercise are all fundamental to developing strong willpower.

Meditation

Daily meditation is an excellent tool for increasing willpower. Meditation is the practice of focusing on a particular subject, like the breath, and bringing our attention back each time it begins to wander. Meditation can thereby improve both your ability to focus and your control over your mind, which are inherent features of willpower. You can learn more about meditation here.

Pomodoro

The Pomodoro technique is named after small, tomato-shaped kitchen timers. The technique uses the Pomodoro timer (or any kind of timer) to set pre-determined periods of work and rest, for example: 20 minutes work to 5 minutes rest. Once the timer is started for work, you must only work while the timer is going and do nothing else. Once the work timer goes off, the rest timer starts, and you cannot work during that period and must only rest. The Pomodoro technique:

• provides motivation for periods of focus;
• allows automated, guilt-free periods of rest;
• eliminates the distraction of deciding when to start or stop; and
• focuses our attention during work periods.

To start:

• Set a period of work/rest that you can easily maintain, say 20 minutes of work to 5 minutes of rest.
• Attempt the Pomodoro method over a few sessions. If you struggle to get through the work period, decrease the time for work. If you are finding it easy to get through the work period, gradually increase the period of work.
• After repeated sessions of the technique, take a much longer break period to rest.
• You will notice that at some point, as you increase the work period, focused attention will become difficult and your brain will regularly prompt you with distractions. That point is the present limit of your attention span for that task.
• Repeat a few times to establish and confirm your limit.
• Once established, set your work timer to that limit, thereby decreasing time spent working with weak focus, increasing your productivity and reducing your need to procrastinate.

To improve:

• Once you feel comfortable with a ratio of work/rest, you can gradually begin increasing the set period of work to increase your length of focus.
• It’s important to increase any work periods very gradually. Think about it as a long-term investment in your future ability. Rushing will inevitably cause you to overextend and fall into procrastination during your work periods, defeating the whole purpose.