Recommendation
To exercise or to binge-watch Netflix, that is the question. One behavior you should do; the other, you want to do. Exercising is the healthy option with long-term benefits, but decompressing by watching your favorite show offers immediate gratification – until the guilt sets in, that is. Self-help guru James Clear recommends combining both tasks using a technique called “temptation bundling” to boost your motivation and reduce procrastination. His life hack will allow you to enjoy a guilt-free life of planned indulgences that are psychologically healthy and boast long-term benefits.
Take-Aways
- The tendency to put off dreaded, boring tasks is a universal problem. A behavioral technique called “temptation bundling” can end this procrastination.
- Marketers leverage temptation bundling to nudge audiences toward a desired behavior.
- To create a temptation bundle, list the tasks you dread and those you enjoy, and search for complementary sweet spots.
- Combine temptation building with “habit stacking,” another adaptive behavioral technique, to fortify your task-completion behaviors.
- Temptation bundling can help you address and complete important tasks that are not urgent.
Summary
The tendency to put off dreaded, boring tasks is a universal problem. A behavioral technique called “temptation bundling” can end this procrastination.
Ronan Byrne, an electrical engineering student, solved his procrastination problem by developing a computer program that would allow Netflix to run on his TV and laptop only if he was cycling faster than a certain speed on his stationary bike. If he slowed down, his show would pause. Byrne’s invention is an example of temptation bundling: It allowed him to make an activity he dreaded but needed to do – exercising – more attractive by simultaneously rewarding himself with an activity he enjoyed – watching TV.
Marketers leverage temptation bundling to nudge audiences toward a desired behavior.
Temptation bundling rewards you for doing tasks you need to do. Marketers excel at monetizing this phenomenon. For example, during its 2014–2015 season, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) scheduled three back-to-back shows by screenwriter Shonda Rhimes – Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder – for its primetime Thursday night lineup. The network cleverly framed the weekly Rhimes marathon as a task viewers needed to do – tune in to their favorite shows – and encouraged viewers to pair it with tasks they wanted to do – unwind with popcorn and wine. As the reward became increasingly associated with the cue, viewers began to build a habit around watching TV and consuming wine and popcorn on a Thursday night.
“You’re more likely to find a behavior attractive if you get to do one of your favorite things at the same time.”
Temptation bundling is an example of a psychology theory called Premack’s Principle, which states that “more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors”; that is, you can train yourself to get into the habit of doing an undesirable task if you pair it with an attractive one.
To create a temptation bundle, list the tasks you dread and those you enjoy, and search for complementary sweet spots.
When you behave well – for example, by exercising – you pay an up-front cost in time that has positive long-term benefits. Succumbing to bad behaviors – like skipping a workout to binge a TV show – offers immediate gratification but has long-term consequences for your health. Temptation bundling – like watching your favorite show only at the gym – reaps short-term and long-term benefits that promote good habits.
“With temptation bundling...you can get the short-term benefits of indulging and the long-term benefits that result from practicing good habits consistently.”
To create anti-procrastination temptation bundles, make a list of all the things that you love to do or that you consider guilty pleasures. Then jot down a list of drudgery items, boring work tasks and behaviors you ought to adopt. Link something from the temptation column to something in your procrastination column, and commit to indulging in the temptation only while completing the undesirable task. For example, you might decide to listen to podcasts only while exercising, or to eat at your favorite restaurant only when having a meeting with a difficult co-worker. Temptation bundling allows you to spoil yourself guilt-free while accomplishing a taxing task. It both motivates you and reinforces a behavior that is necessary but easy to put off.
Combine temptation bundling with “habit stacking,” another adaptive behavioral technique, to fortify task-completion behaviors.
Habit stacking creates a process that becomes a behavioral rule. Start with a current habit and follow it up with a habit that you need to establish. Consistently move directly from the first habit into the one you need to accomplish to routinize the entire process. Add a temptation bundle to the second habit to fortify your motivation. Your existing habit will begin to trigger the new habit, which includes an intrinsic reward. Add, or stack, more habits and rewards to get through tasks you dread.
Temptation bundling can help you address and complete important tasks that are not urgent.
A factor that separates high achievers from the rest is their ability to tackle tasks that are important but lack urgency. While urgent tasks are inherently motivating, important tasks are typically recurrent, so establishing solid behavioral patterns to accomplish them keeps top performers moving forward.
“The tasks that are important are rarely urgent.”
Employ temptation bundling to keep abreast of the important tasks both at work and home and to live a rewarding, productive, guilt-free life.
About the Author
James Clear is the author of Atomic Habits. He writes about a broad range of self-improvement topics, including work habits and decision-making.
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