152 - Friday Fix: Increase Your Willpower with Temptation Bundling

The Verywell Mind Podcast

Dotdash Media Inc.

Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Mental Health, Education

5 • 703 Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2022

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We all have things that we don’t want to do yet feel obligated to do them. Working out, cleaning the house, and paying the bills are just a few of those things that most of us don’t love doing yet we know these things are important. It’s hard to force yourself to do something boring or to keep going on a task that you don’t feel like doing. When we give up on our goals (like quitting the gym), or we avoid doing something often enough (like cleaning the house), we can get down ourselves for not having the mental strength we need to persevere. But you don’t need to rely on willpower to do unpleasant tasks. Instead, there are strategies you can use to make an unpleasant feeling more pleasant. Then, accomplishing it doesn’t seem so dreadful. That’s where temptation bundling comes into play. It’s a science-backed strategy that has been found to help people get those unpleasant tasks done more often. And the best news is, you might even find yourself looking forward to those things you normally don’t like doing when you employ this strategy regularly. In today’s episode, I’ll explain what temptation bundling is, how it works, and how some people in my therapy office have used it to make their lives better. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Very Well Mind podcast. We've interviewed over 100 authors, experts, entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians, and others to help you learn strategies to care for your mental health.
0:22.9	This episode is hosted by psychotherapist and bestselling author Amy Morin. Now let's get into the episode.
0:45.6	Okay. You're listening to the Friday fix.
0:48.0	Do you have struggled to create good habits for yourself?
0:50.8	Do you have trouble making healthy habits stick?
0:53.0	Do you lack self-control?
0:56.0	If you answered yes to any of those questions, this episode is for you. Today I'm talking about a science-back strategy that can help you
1:01.4	stick to your good habits, even if you lack willpower. It's called temptation bundling. That's a term
1:08.0	coined by our former guest, Katie Milkman. We talked to her back in episode 106 about
1:13.5	how to create lasting change. She's a professor and a researcher on behavior change.
1:19.4	One of the things she's researched is the idea that you can increase healthy habits by pairing
1:23.9	a good habit that you struggle to keep with an indulgent habit that you enjoy.
1:29.1	For example, you might not like exercising at the gym, but if you listen to your favorite podcast
1:34.1	while you work out, you might find you actually start looking forward to your workouts.
1:39.3	In a research study, participants were given audiobooks that could only be listened to when they
1:43.9	were at the
1:44.2	gym. And shortly after, their gym attendance greatly improved. Many of the participants
1:50.1	chose to continue listening to their favorite audiobooks only when they went to the gym after the
1:55.0	study ended because they found it so helpful. That's actually one of my favorite personal tricks
1:59.8	that I like to use. I listen to my
2:01.6	favorite podcasts when I'm working out. There are days that I just don't feel like going to the
2:05.7	gym, but I always do feel like listening to my favorite shows. So I hit the gym, sometimes just because I
	...

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