Because no amount of loafing is as sweet as chocolate.
If you’ve got a list of chores to do, when’s the best time to do them? For a lot of people, the answer is “later,” and it’s not hard to sympathize. Work, school, and other responsibilities can quickly eat up so much of your time that once you finally get to the part of your day when you get to choose what to do next, “Relax and recharge for tomorrow” is usually a pretty tempting option.
Eventually, though, you just have get off your butt and get them done, which brings us to Japanese Twitter user Samezamesame (@wE_mod9_Ep), who’s come up with a brilliant way to bite the bullet and start on your chores: by promising yourself a bite of something else later.
“I’m the kind of person who manages their task list with chocolate,” tweets Samezamesame. Pictured are six individually wrapped pieces of Meiji-brand chocolate, and on each one Samezamesame has written a different chore. “Organize shopping receipts” says one, while other wrappers are marked with “Fold laundry,” “Clean up bedroom,” or other unfinished chores. Every time one task gets completed, Samezamesame gets to unwrap and enjoy that piece of chocolate.
Granted, most people would say that the real reward of doing chores is being freed from a dirty, cluttered, stress-inducing environment. But having tangible rewards, prepared in advance, makes checking each item off the to-do list feel, and taste, extra sweet. It functions as a nice substitute for the lethargic luxury you give up by doing your chores instead of lounging on the couch, and also helps you keep track of what you need to do next and shows you what your reward is going to be, helping to keep the cycle of productivity going.
You can even apply the motivational method to things beyond cleaning and organizing your living space. For example, Samezamseame also shared a photo of an entire box of chocolates marked with textbook chapters, which he used during high school as rewards for completing the drills for each section of the books.
Samezamesame’s idea has been a hit with other Twitter users who feel that they too could bribe themselves into being more productive with the power of chocolate, though a few comments also pointed out potential pitfalls.
“You’re a genius, aren’t you?”
“This is so smart. You get a tiny little reward each time.”
“So that’s what I’ve been doing wrong. I’ve been eating a whole box of chocolates first, then feeling too full to organize my task list.”
“This is great for people like me, since I have a tendency to forget everything except that I want to eat chocolate.”
“Wonderful idea for managing your task list. Looking forward to trying it for myself. Just need to figure out how to manage my weight too.”
Of course, if you’re worried about your sweets intake, like the last commenter, it doesn’t have to be chocolate. You could apply the same principle (procuring the reward beforehand and marking what it’s for) to all sorts of things, like tea bags, cans of beer, or inexpensive capsule toys, just so long as you’ve got some concrete way to tell yourself, “Hey, nice job getting that done.”
Meanwhile, if life’s got you so down that you need extra motivation just to get out of bed, there’s an idea for that too.
Source: Twitter/@wE_mod9_Ep via IT Media
Top image: Pakutaso
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