In this episode, we discuss how to add rewards to your tasks to ensure that you do those difficult tasks on your to-do list.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons that you can reflect on in your journal so you can grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually and have a better career, better relationships, and better personal finances while you enjoy your morning cup of coffee.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
At the end of today’s podcast episode, I’m going to give you a prompt question to reflect on in your journal. The idea is to take one to five minutes to reflect on today’s lesson and write a minimum of one paragraph on how you can apply the lesson in your life. You can use an actual journal, a word document like on Google Drive, or your note-taking app like Evernote. The idea is that you’re actually thinking about how to process the information to help you improve your life.
In today’s episode, we are going to talk about how temptation bundling works. If you don’t know how temptation bundling works, it is when you pair something you don’t like to do with something you do like to do. For example, if you don’t like to go to the gym, then you reward yourself by watching your favorite television show at the gym. This is the technique I use to go to the gym. I love to learn so I like to ride a stationary bike while I read and then I listen to podcasts while I work out. I can’t really listen to podcasts while I work because it’s hard to concentrate on both activities. And spending an hour at the gym to work out and learn, is a combo that I truly enjoy.
When it comes to habits, there is a three-step process. There is the cue, the routine, and the reward. The key part of temptation bundling is the reward. It can be tough to go to the gym at times on pure willpower, so it is wise to add something to the routine so that it is easier to start and finish that task that you really don’t want to do. The world is already difficult as it is, might as well add things to your life that will make it easier.
About 10 years ago, I got into behavioral economics because I believed if we can help people make better decisions, then the world would be a better place. I’m still in that camp and I’m trying to figure out ways so I can make a better decision and temptation bundling is something that I can do to ensure I do what I’m supposed to do.
There are plenty of ways to add temptation bundling to your life. I find one of the best things for me is to schedule a five to ten-minute walk after I complete a task. I used to be able to do that before the lockdown but know I have to reward myself with a video game on my iPad.
One tip that I like as well as that you should put a warm drink on a pile of papers that you need to go through, then what you do is that you put the drink in the freezer and then after an hour of doing the task, then you pull the cold drink from the freezer as your reward. The key thing is that you need to reward yourself after you complete the routine. Then what happens is that you start to train your mind and body to do hard tasks. Then after you do the hard task, you start to get good at it and then it becomes second nature.
Procrastination is huge in our lives because making a lot of decisions is exhausting, especially if you don’t know the subject very well. I like to tell people that one hour with a professional will save you eight hours. Eight hours is a lot of time trying to learn something when you can do something else that is more fun. But going through your personal finances, doing your taxes, reading articles that relate to your field, and cleaning your room, can be a drudge. But if you add music to your cleaning routine, then the routine becomes much more bearable. Music is one thing I add to my routine. It doesn’t require me to listen carefully to the words as a podcast and the beat gets me into a rhythm. If it’s something that I really don’t like to do, then I listen to one song on repeat for the entire task. This seems to help me out a lot in completing a task.
Life today is way more complex than it was 200, 100, and even 20 years ago. We have to understand more things and it requires making decisions on things that we’re not completely confident about. We’re then afraid of making the wrong decision so we then don’t make a decision. When it comes to choosing the right allocation for your investment portfolio, picking the right car for you and your family, which place to go for a vacation, what to do on the weekend, the options are endless. The key thing, I have to say is, keep the end in mind and what do you want your life to be like and be okay it’s 80 to 90 percent what you want your life to be like.
For me, I know that working out is important to me to protect my health and working on my business is important for me, but I still need to add things to my routine so that I can finish the routine. If I didn’t have music with my workout, I’ll probably work out a lot less. Right now, I haven’t been working out like I should because of the quarantine but I’ve been watching what I’ve been eating and haven’t gained any weight. Right now, it’s easy to just watch television and not do much. There were days where I didn’t do anything because I was miserable about staying inside, but adding things like temptation bundling have helped me get stuff done. I would also recommend that you write in a journal about how you’re feeling. When you put words on paper, you have to work through your issues and they become much more bearable and are able to move on with your life.
That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, understand and implement temptation bundling into your routine. Know your cues, your routine, and your reward. Some rewards are sweet treats, but maybe you need to have a different reward. Experiment to see what works for you and once you find something that works, then ride it until it stops working, which is hopefully never. I know I have to find different songs but once I get the right song on repeat, then there is no stopping me. Ultimately, this is about making better decisions and we need to put things in place to stack the odds in our favor. There is way too many distractions out there in the world to do this on your own. But if you can have the right setup, then you can have control over your life and be able to live life on your own terms without regrets.
So in your journal, ask yourself, what is a task that you’ve been putting off? How can you add a reward to that task to make it more pleasant? What is a cue to help you get started? Don’t overwhelm yourself in designing the perfect setup, just do something and then get one percent better the next time around. The more important tasks that you can complete for yourself, the better off you’re going to be. Some of these tasks need to be delegated to someone else so have the wisdom to know what you should ultimately do. Hopefully this tips helps you out and that you can start getting to work.
Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my audiobook “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and you can download it right there.
I have a quiz on my website that grades your inner circle, so if you want to find out if your inner circle is an A, B, C, D, or F, you can take that quiz at growwithjoe.me/quiz
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Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
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