Margen
Katy Milkman, a professor at Wharton, noticed two things: page-turner novels only tempted her when she should have been doing something else, and the gym lacked a hook. So she tied them together. In an experiment, she handed out audio players loaded with gripping audiobooks — The Hunger Games among them — under one condition: they could only be listened to at the gym.
The result was published in Management Science: participants whose audiobook was held 'hostage' went to the gym considerably more — in the first weeks, about 51% more visits than the control group. The technique is called temptation bundling: tie something you love to something you tend to avoid, and allow yourself the first only during the second.
The applications are immediate. Your favourite podcast, only while ironing. The series, only on the stationary bike. The good coffee, only with the dense report. The trick works twice over: the unpleasant task becomes the only door to the pleasure, and the pleasure stops feeling guilty because now it works for you.
One rule: be strict with the bundle. The moment the show can also be watched from the sofa, the gym goes back to being just a gym.