Fun & Creative Techniques to Tackle Challenging Goals

Wharton Professor Katy Milkman, author of How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, argues that we should try more often to "reach individual and team goals by relying on short-term gratification instead of willpower." Milkman explains that willpower simply isn't a very effective strategy for goal attainment for most of us. Here's her description of what researchers consistently find:

The research is clear: It doesn’t work. We tend to be overconfident about how easy it is to be self-disciplined, but a big payoff far down the road — or even knowing that a change is simple or cheap — just isn’t enough to keep us motivated. Economists call this tendency to favor instantly gratifying temptations over larger long-term rewards “present bias.” Unfortunately, it’s universal, and one of the biggest barriers to change.

What techniques work more effectively than simply relying on willpower alone?  One strategy she advocates is called "temptation bundling" - something I've blogged about in the past.   Milkman also argues that adding a little fun to our strategies for goal attainment can be highly effective.  Many firms, for instance, have pursued gamification strategies to encourage employees to achieve certain objectives.  Sometimes, even more creative options can be very successful.   Milkman describes one such highly imaginative approach to encouraging people to pursue a healthier activity: 

Every day, nearly 100,000 passengers rush through Stockholm’s Odenplan metro station. Each one of them has a choice: To get to and from their train, they can take the stairs or the escalator. To encourage the former, making a difference to people’s health (9% of premature deaths worldwide are attributed to inadequate exercise), a team of technicians funded by Volkswagen’s “Fun Theory” initiative turned the staircase into a set of giant, working piano keys. The result? Because taking the stairs was now fun, 66% more people than usual chose the stairs over the escalator. 

Try Temptation Bundling to Make The Tough Choices

We have all faced certain choices in which we know the right thing to do, but we don't choose the best path.   We should eat the lower calorie item on the menu, yet we opt for the delicious pasta dish.  We should work out daily, but we skip the gym and grab a beer after work with some friends.  We should save for retirement, but we opt to splurge on a vacation instead.  We should work on that term paper due next week, but we head to the party at our friend's apartment instead.   How can we improve our ability to make these tough decisions?  Wharton Professor Katherine Milkman has conducted some fascinating research on this issue.   She describes a self-control technique called temptation bundling.   In short, you bundle together a "want" and a "should" so as to make better overall choices.  This excerpt from a profile of Milkman by Princeton's alumni newsletter explains her findings:  

In 2014, Milkman published a study of a self-control strategy she calls “temptation bundling.” The idea is to link a want (in the study, listening to audio versions of page-turners such as the Hunger Games books) with a popular should (working out at the campus fitness center). If getting on a treadmill were the only way to hear the next chapter in the novel, would you be more likely to get off the couch and go to the gym?   The results were promising: Participants who had access to the audiobooks only at the gym made 51 percent more gym visits than those in the control group. (Another cohort that was encouraged, but not required, to restrict their listening to workout times had 29 percent more visits than the control group.)