The Temptation Pack Can Help You Do the Tasks You Hate
Productivity hacks often have fancy little names. You’ve got the Pomodoro Technique , the ” eat the frog ” idea, and now the temptation all in one. Pooling temptations, according to Ness Labs , involves pairing activities that give you instant gratification with things you don’t enjoy doing. The best example is to wait until you watch your favorite show before jumping on the treadmill, but there are many other ways to use this idea to your advantage.
If you love talking to your best friend on the phone but hate cleaning, give them a call when you need to clean up. If you love reading but hate walking your dog, listen to an audiobook while walking. If you love listening to music but hate learning… you know what to do.
Like many productivity hacks, this one is based on science: In 2014, researchers coined the term after they studied the effects of combining instant gratification but guilt-inducing behaviors with valuable delayed reward behaviors and found that people who combined their experiences went to the gym more often.
How to “bind temptation”
Take a piece of paper and make two columns: Wants and Must, according to Ness Labs. You can structure your set of temptations in such a way that you can perform one action from each column at a time , or allow you to perform one “I want” immediately after the “I must.”
There are only two things to keep in mind. First, if you perform actions at the same time, instant gratification cannot somehow undo an action that provides long-term benefits. For example, if you want to listen to music but have to learn, for example, don’t listen to a brand new album that you really want to accept; it will distract you from your studies. Do not play phone games on the treadmill as arm movement will distract you from concentration, making your workout less effective and less safe.
Second, you must stick to it. The study that gave way to this method also found that some people’s participation in the gym declined over time, even with bundling. You must find packages that work for you and stick to them. You can’t just still listen to your favorite podcast on days when you don’t do the activities that go with it. For maximum benefit, stick to your packages and don’t be fooled.