We all struggle to get certain things done. Do you hate unloading the dishwasher or always put off doing your homework? Or maybe you dread cleaning out a rabbit hutch or leave getting your school bag ready until the very last minute. But whatever it is that you put off doing, there’s a trick that could help.
Here’s how it works. You take something you’re putting off doing, and pair it with something you do like. So that could be only having a hot chocolate while you’re doing your homework (the key word being ‘only’!). It works as an incentive, and as well as motivating you to actually do the task, in the longer term it might even help you to enjoy it a bit more.
Scientifically proven
Scientists call this tactic ‘temptation bundling’. Dr Katherine Milkman, at the University of Pennsylvania, researched the approach and found that bundling the things we want to do together with things we should do is a smart way to get motivated.
She carried out a study encouraging students to exercise while listening to exciting audiobooks at the same time. The first group could only listen to the audiobooks at the gym (and at no other time), while the second group could dip into their audiobooks wherever and whenever they wanted to. It turned out that the first group was 51% more likely to exercise than the other group.
Changing your mind
This technique is especially helpful if you’re trying to change a long-term habit. If you don’t find something fun, you’re unlikely to stick to it. But with temptation bundling, you might find yourself actually looking forward to doing that task you used to dread.
You could try:
- Having a snack while you do your homework.
- Watching your favourite TV show when you clean your football boots.
- Listening to a brilliant song while emptying the dishwasher.
- Sticking on a great audiobook while you tidy your room.
We’re all different
Remember that what you enjoy will be different from what your friends enjoy. So for you, reorganising your clothes drawers might be satisfying, and something you could do at the same time as listening to a podcast about history that you’ve been avoiding for ages. But for someone else, tidying clothes might be the biggest chore ever – in which case they might like to organise them while watching an episode of their favourite show.
Tips and tricks
- Find tasks that complement each other, and require different amounts of effort. The reason the homework and hot chocolate pairing works is that while you need to give lots of attention to your homework, you can enjoy your drink without too much thought or effort.
- Make a promise to yourself to only do the thing you love when you’re doing the thing you should be doing, and try to stick to it – even if it’s only when you’re testing out the approach for a week.
- Don’t make every activity you like about chocolate or sugar! Try to think of other non-food things you like too.
- Don’t take it too far – if you really dislike doing something, maybe you can find another way to get around it. You don’t want to spoil how much you enjoy the thing you do like.
- The key to making this work is to promise yourself that you’ll only do the thing you enjoy doing while you’re doing its buddy activity. But it can be hard to stick to promises you make to yourself! So to try out the technique, give yourself a set time (like a week). You’ll be much more likely to stick to it than if you tell yourself you’ll NEVER have hot chocolate ever again unless you’re doing homework!