The Regret Lottery
Reframe a task you're avoiding as a prize you'll lose if you skip it.
The concept
Loss aversion as follow-through fuel
Duke researchers ran the same raffle two ways. A normal entry got one-third of students to complete a survey. Telling students they were already entered — but would forfeit the prize if they hadn't completed it — got two-thirds. Imagined loss moves us more than equal-sized imagined gain.
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How people ran this
Used this before a portfolio review. Sat with the dread for 8 minutes, then opened Figma and just shipped the worst version. Got the best feedback of my year.
Maya, product designer
Ran it during a planning week when I kept rewriting the same doc. Three rough versions in 15 minutes — my staff eng picked the one I least liked.
Jordan, eng manager
I'm a chronic deleter. The 'name the feeling' step was the unlock. It was almost always shame, not perfectionism.
Anon
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