Temptation Bundling

Day 144: One thing I learned today...

When I first got back into running a few years ago, I made a deal with myself. I would not watch certain shows unless I was running while doing it. I was the weirdo at the gym with my iPad. But it worked for me.

Come to find there is a term for this— Temptation Bundling.

Ronan Byrne, an electrical engineering student in Dublin, Ireland, enjoyed watching Netflix. He also knew he should be engaging in more exercise. So what did he decide to do. Basically the same thing as I did… except he engineered it a bit more.

Byrne connected his indoor stationary bike up to a computer monitor. If and only if he was cycling at a certain speed, then he would be able to watch Netflix. If he slowed down, the show would pause. Pretty cool stuff.

So I am assume many of you out there are not engineers but could you bundle anything together in order to increase a behavior? What actions would you link?

Source: Atomic Habits by James Clear