Sebastian

“We think “future me” will be able to make good choices, but too often “present me” succumbs to temptation.”
― Katy Milkman, How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

“Temptation bundling entails allowing yourself to engage in a guilty pleasure (such as binge-watching TV) only when pursuing a virtuous or valuable activity that you tend to dread (such as exercise). Temptation bundling solves two problems at once. It can help reduce overindulgence in temptations and increase time spent on activities that serve your long-term goals. Gamification is another way to make goal pursuit instantly gratifying. It involves making something that isn’t a game feel more engaging and less monotonous by adding gamelike features such as symbolic rewards, a sense of competition, and leaderboards. Gamification works when players “buy in” to the game. It can backfire if players feel the game is being imposed on them.”
― Katy Milkman, How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

“I like to remind cynics that if you flip the discouraging statistics about New Year’s resolutions on their head, you’ll see that 20 percent of the goals set each January succeed. That’s a lot of people who’ve changed their lives for the better simply because they resolved to try in the first place.”
― Katy Milkman, How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

“The moral of this research to me is that temptation bundling certainly works best if you can actually restrict an indulgence to whenever you’re doing a task that requires an extra boost of motivation (such as making it possible to listen to audiobooks only at the gym, and not in your car or on the bus). But merely suggesting that people try temptation bundling is enough to produce benefits that last.”
― Katy Milkman, How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be