How to Strengthen Willpower for MBA Admissions

Willpower is the weapon that converts passion into action. It gives you the ability to push through tasks that you don’t enjoy. The tasks include shortlisting 5 schools from over 100 top MBA programs, creating a 3-Month GMAT Prep Plan or collecting resources for MBA Application essays; all essential tasks but most of them monotonous in nature that require greater concentration, and attention to details: two things that will drain your will power.

So how do you go about strengthening your Will Power during the stressful 1-Year before MBA?

Understand how Willpower is depleted

With each temptation that you overcome, willpower is depleted, leading you to a state that is vulnerable and ineffective. According to research, an average human being is resisting temptation 4-hours a day, overcoming the desire to sleep, eat, perform sex, use social media, or browse the web. Evaluating various options does not deplete Willpower but when you decide to go out with your friends for a party instead of doing Business School research, your inners self is saying, “common dude, party is more important than your future?”

When you retract the decision, and stick with Business School research, willpower gets depleted considerably. As you start the process of research: shortlisting schools by evaluating the merits of the program, and its ability to fulfill your short-term goals, you are more vulnerable to temptation as the choice between party & research was tough, and it took considerable effort from your part to overcome that temptation. If it were for your untamed mind, you would be having your 3rd shot of tequila.

The process of shortlisting schools involves comparing two MBA programs on various factors: accreditation, post-MBA salary increase, quality of faculty, and reputation. Comparing two MBA programs on all these factors require analytical and deductive skills. Your ability to perform this action is diminished, and you might pick the easy way out – Business School ranking. There is nothing wrong in using ranking as a reference but it should only be one data point. Mapping MBA programs to post-MBA goals is the key.

So how can you recover from this depleted state?

1) Limit Decision Making

It might sound trivial but your willpower is utilized several times for the simplest decision: picking the shirt, socks, trousers, and even the route to your office. Instead of making all these decisions every day, pick one day, preferably Sunday to make all these decisions for the week. Note it down in your scheduler.

After you have allocated one day for all the trivial decisions, it is time to focus only on two to three decisions, each day. It should be major ones. If you are a working professional, one decision should be related to work, one related to MBA Admission Process (read our 12-month MBA Admission plan) and the final decision with your personal life.

2) Divide and Conquer

Shortlisting 5-Schools from 100 Business Schools, picking two GMAT resources from 100s of sources online can be tricky. Do not get overwhelmed by this end goal. Instead, divide the task into smaller tasks.

a) Research about Insead MBA Program, list 10 pros and cons, and evaluate the most viable career options after the MBA.

b) Find out the most downloaded GMAT resources from GMAT Club and Beat The GMAT. Pick one resource from each section (RC, SC, CR, PS, DS & IR).

c)  Bookmark, F1GMAT’s GMAT Tutorial section according to sub-categories (Reading Comprehension, Sentence Correction, Critical Reasoning, Problem Solving & Data Sufficiency).

If you are starting early, the Business School research would be easy, and manageable. You will have enough time to make the big decision.

3) Develop a Routine

Once you start the process of divide and conquer, allocate morning time for the most important decisions. Make sure that you have a good night sleep before big decisions.

a) Follow the same schedule. If you make decisions just after your morning exercise, keep that routine for 1-week, and monitor the effectiveness of the process.

b) Ask your partner or colleague to keep a check on task completion; more like an unofficial coach.

c) Develop a healthy exercise regimen: Walk 30 minutes every day, go for a 1-hr workout, and do some floor or aerobic exercise. Regular exercise has proven to elevate our mood, and make us less vulnerable to willpower depletion.

d) Change your food habits: include more vitamin C & Glucose in your diet. Drink 2 liters of water, especially if you work out.

e) Solve puzzles, play suduku and keep solving a few GMAT 800 Questions even after your GMAT. Like physical exercise, mental exercise is crucial for building willpower.

4) Disconnect

We spend willpower on three wasteful activities: random web browsing, channel surfing and social media interactions.

a) Block websites using Browser Add-Ons and allocate 1 hour every day for random web browsing or reading online.

b) Avoid channel surfing. Subscribe to NetFlix or Amazon for all your favorite TV shows & Movies. Watch the programs on weekends. Fix a time for this task too.

c) Allocate 30 minutes for all Social Media Interactions. Allocate the least productive time for this task: just after dinner, or immediately on return from your office.

5) Reward Yourself

Following a disciplined approach require rewards at regular interval. After following the ‘Willpower’ enhancing activities for the week, one day should be assigned to blow a little steam off. Go for the extra unhealthy snack or a few rounds of drinks. For the next week, this small session of indiscipline and ‘freedom’ will take you forward, motivating you to stick to the plan.