Temptation bundling
- Why?
- Temptation bundling
- Process - Make two lists - our “Should” Activities and our “Temptation” activities
- Bundling
- Avoid the temptation activities outside of the “bundling”
- Combine “tempation bundling” with “habit stacking”
- Transition Away from Your Temptations When You Don’t Need Them
- Closing thoughts
- Reading material
Pairing an instantly gratifying guilty pleasure with an activity you know you should do more of (that otherwise requires willpower).
Linking an action you want to do with an action you need do.
It is a clever method of using rewards – or the things we enjoy doing, those guilty pleasures which offer instant gratification – to invoke the willpower to also get all the things we don’t want to do, things that often come with long-term benefits, out of the way. In essence, we kill two birds with one stone by doing what we want and what we should be doing together, but only together. One does not happen without the other. And the rewards aren’t something we do after we’ve completed what we should be doing more of, but rather something we can also do while completing that task.
It is a strategy to address the ‘want versus should conflict’. It’s the tension between what we want to do because it delivers on a craving or temptation, versus what we know you should do because it’s in our best interest. Rather than counterposing them, Temptation Bundling involves linking these two elements.
Why?
We need to enjoy ourselves a little. After all, life isn’t worth living if we can’t enjoy ourselves. But we also can’t totally abandon all of the things we should be doing instead.
Temptation bundling
The word is coined by Katherine Milkman, assistant professor at Wharton University of Penn. and behavioral economist.
Use the power of instant gratification to get through your least favorite tasks.
It is a way to boost willpower.
Building habits is like training a dog - we have to reward ourselves for a job well done.
“Temptation bundling” lets us enjoy our rewards while we build good habits. It can be a very powerful tool.
We can employ temptation bundling to make habits more attractive.
It relates to the classic - “relating reward with a cue” behavior.
We are more likely to find a behavior attractive if we get to do one of our favorite things at the same time.
Temptation bundling is one way to apply a psychology theory known as Premack’s Principle. Named after the work of professor David Premack, the principle states that more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors.
We can use temptation bundling to increase physical exercise, as well as in many other realms of our lives.
Process - Make two lists - our “Should” Activities and our “Temptation” activities
“Should” activities
Are there any activities you avoid (procrastinate on), but you know will benefit you in the long run? Let’s call these “should” activities.
“Should” activities could include tasks like exercise, studying more, spending time with a family member you are not fond of, or any other type of positive change you want to achieve.
All of us have activities that we know we “should” do.
- exercise
- increase physical strength
- study more
- spending time with family members
- swimming etc.
Temptations
These are activities that are guilty pleasures we like to enjoy from time to time, but they are not particularly useful or absolutely necessary in our lives.
These are things that will stimulate our senses us while we perform them.
Temptations are practically the inverse of “should” activities in terms of usefulness.
e.g.
- listening to audio books
- reading internet articles
- watch a trashy TV show or internet videos for a few minutes
Some temptations might come with long-term costs. They may be useful in getting us started with the “should” activities, but they might not be sustainable (for example, if they’re junk food-related).
Bundling
Once we have the two lists - the “should” list and the “temptations” list, we have to pair certain items from one list to certain items in the second list. The two lists are practically the perfect complements to each other.
Make sure that your temptation doesn’t impair performance of the “should” activity.
What makes temptation bundling so useful is, we can get the benefits of both, without the downsides of either.
Examples of pairs
- getting pedicures while catching up on overdue work emails
- listening to your favorite music/podcasts only when doing household chores
- going to a favorite restaurant only when spending time with a difficult relative/colleague
- watching a favorite show only while ironing or doing household chores
- only drink a beer when cleaning the house
- only listen to your favorite podcast while walking the dog
The possibilities are very personal but also virtually endless.
Avoid the temptation activities outside of the “bundling”
However, there is a falloff rate. For optimal results, we must stick to the plan. Any deviation from the course can and will likely result in falloff, just like that New Year’s resolutions we make at the beginning of the year. But in order to stick to the plan and not cheat, we have to have some serious self-control. If we reward ourselves without doing what we should be doing, such as watching Netflix without going to the gym or listening to your favorite album without cleaning, the system will begin to fall apart.
Without temptation building, there’s nothing that says we would enjoy the reward activities after our “good behavior”.
Temptation bundling becomes less effective if we enjoy our temptations outside of our “should” activities. If we are going to bundle a trashy TV show with the gym, we should not to watch that show any other time.
It’s tough - but it is an effective way to make tempation bundling work.
Combine “tempation bundling” with “habit stacking”
We can combine temptation bundling with habit stacking to create a set of rules to guide our behavior.
The idea is to use tempation bundling to help kick-start better habits, to do more of the things we should be doing, rather than only the things we want to do.
The habit stacking + temptation bundling formula is:
- After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED].
- After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT].
If I want to read the news, I need to express more gratitude. I get to watch news only after saying one thing that I am grateful for that happened yesterday.
If you want to watch sports, I need to complete a programming challenge first.
If you want to check YouTube, I have to exercise first.
Doing the thing you need to do means you get to do the thing you want to do.
Transition Away from Your Temptations When You Don’t Need Them
Too much of giving in to the temptations could eventually become a crutch that holds us back. The long-term effects of our “should” activities will likely being to show over time. As we begin to notice them, we should also begin to wean yourself off the temptations.
After all, it’s habits that stick, not mind hacks.
As our “should” activities become intrinsically more rewarding, we can rely less on temptations. We can start the transition away from temptations by only using them when we feel like quitting a “should” activity.
We could also use a temptation to trick ourselves into starting on a daunting “should” activity, too. For example, watch just one episode of a TV show as you get started on the elliptical, then turn it off.
Over time, we can return to the normal model of habits if we don’t need the extra motivation that a bundled temptation provides. We should start measuring our progress to make the “should” activity intrinsically more rewarding.
Closing thoughts
Temptation bundling may sound simple. But it can be a powerful tool to drive change. We might already be doing it without knowing it. We can consciously start bundling more temptations together with other “should” activities, so it becomes easier to change and improve ourselves.