Using scarcity or seasonality to heighten appreciation
Restrict access to something abundant in order to restore its perceived value.
Key takeaways
- What it is: Restrict access to something abundant in order to restore its perceived value.
- Why it works: Abundance normalises: when something is always available, it stops being appreciated. The Japanese custom of hanami (cherry blossom viewing) has its power precisely because the blossoms last only a week or two. Creating artificial scarcity — seasonal foods eaten only in season, a favourite activity limited to weekends — restores the contrast between presence and absence that drives genuine appreciation. This is the hedonic adaptation mechanism run in reverse.
- Evidence: Backed by observational / correlational evidence.
- Avoid: Creating the restriction but mentally compensating — thinking about the restricted thing during the absence in a way that provides anticipatory pleasure without the discipline. The practice requires actual absence, not rationed fantasy.
Why it works
Abundance normalises: when something is always available, it stops being appreciated. The Japanese custom of hanami (cherry blossom viewing) has its power precisely because the blossoms last only a week or two. Creating artificial scarcity — seasonal foods eaten only in season, a favourite activity limited to weekends — restores the contrast between presence and absence that drives genuine appreciation. This is the hedonic adaptation mechanism run in reverse.
How to do it
- 1Identify one thing you have made perpetually available and now barely notice.
- 2Restrict access: eat it only on weekends, visit it only in one season, use it only in one context.
- 3When you return to it, approach it as you would a rare occasion.
- 4Track whether the restriction restored any of the appreciation that abundance had eroded.
What the evidence says
ObservationalExperimental research on savoring through restriction shows that limiting access to pleasures increases enjoyment when access is restored, consistent with the hedonic adaptation reversal mechanism.
Honest caveat: Research tests specific pleasures in controlled conditions; real-life application across domains has not been systematically studied. Effect depends on the restriction being genuinely respected.
- — Quoidbach & Dunn (2013), give it up: a strategy for improving wellbeing, Social Psychological and Personality Science
Common mistake
Creating the restriction but mentally compensating — thinking about the restricted thing during the absence in a way that provides anticipatory pleasure without the discipline. The practice requires actual absence, not rationed fantasy.
IX Coach helps you identify which habits have been made so continuous that they’ve lost their restorative or pleasurable quality, and suggests structured breaks that restore rather than remove the benefit.
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