How to Plan Effectively to Protect Your Focus with UCLA’s Hal Hershfield — Part 1

What if the small moments you're rushing through or scrolling away are actually the ones that determine your long-term focus, wellbeing, and productivity?

In this episode of Time Billionaires, Rebecca speaks with Hal Hershfield, a professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management, behavioral economics researcher, author of Your Future Self, and host of The Behavioral Divide. His work has been featured in The New York Times and Harvard Business Review. Hal's research reveals how we emotionally distance ourselves from our future selves and make countless small decisions that quietly ripple into long-term satisfaction, wellbeing, and productivity.

In this first part of their conversation, Rebecca and Hal unpack how our perception of time shapes both major life choices and everyday focus, and why bridging the gap between our present and future selves is the key to sustainable productivity and happiness. Hal explains that we often treat our future self like a stranger, which drives us toward either revenge procrastination or hyper-planning, and that paradoxically, one of the most powerful things we can do for our future self is invest fully in the present moment.

If you've ever caught yourself scrolling between meetings for a quick dopamine hit, clearing your inbox instead of doing deep work, or over-planning things that don't need decisions yet, this conversation offers research-backed ideas for better focus and more intentional time management.

What You'll Learn:

• How small transitions, like the five minutes between meetings, quietly accumulate into productivity loss when we default to scrolling or low-priority email.
• What revenge procrastination is, why it shows up under uncertainty, and how to redirect it without guilt.
• The difference between pre-crastination and procrastination and how they’re related to the same fear-based emotions.
• Why focusing on the present isn't the opposite of planning for the future.

Timestamps

1. Transitions: Distraction vs. Focus – 00:02:57
2. Procrastination as a Control Mechanism – 00:06:28
3. Precrastination and Hyperopia: The Pitfalls of Over-Planning – 00:08:55.
4. Making Decisions for our Future Selves – 00:14:44
   
   

Connect with Hal

Website: https://www.halhershfield.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hal-hershfield
Hal’s Book: https://www.halhershfield.com/yourfutureself
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-behavioral-divide-with-hal-hershfield/id1713168854

For more insight on making the most out of the small moments in your day, follow Rebecca and the Time Billionaires Podcast on LinkedIn.

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Chapters

• (00:00:00) - How to Live Well in Your Future Self
• (00:01:08) - Hal Chambers on His Favorite Professors and How to Win
• (00:02:20) - How To Think About Your Future Self
• (00:08:17) - Procrastination and Pre-Planning: How to Live
• (00:12:37) - The Case for Batching an RSVP