The accommodation on the university ski trip was pretty dire. A one-bedroom flat hosted me and five others; two slept in the bedroom, two in the kitchen/living room, and I shared a bunk bed in the entrance corridor, my face about a metre from the single toilette. The beds had no duvets, only blankets to keep us warm at night.
In this context, I was surprised to find that it became easier to keep my diary and read before bed, even after long days of skiing and après. Before the start of last semester, I had committed to read and write something every day, however, I failed to keep such a routine during term time, often finding myself lacking time or forgetting. So, what was the reason for this change during the ski trip? The flat had a scarcity of charging sockets…
The corridor in which I slept had no wall plugs, so I had to commandeer the socket from a filter coffee machine in the kitchen. This move radically changed the incentives around using my phone in bed and freed up time before I slept to read and write. My pitiful flat turned the simple act of charging my phone into a treacherous ordeal. To reach the socket I would now have to get out of my surprisingly warm blanket, then I would have to climb down the awkward bunk bed steps, risking waking up my friend below, before venturing into the kitchen and again risking waking up another two friends. Once a tempting distraction, using my phone in bed now involved a host of drawbacks which no longer made it worthwhile for my lazy self. A surprisingly good reading light on the wall was the final nail in the coffin, and without thinking about it, my habits changed.
I wrote in my diary every day for the whole week, a goal that proved elusive last semester, and I was shocked by the ease of the transition. By moving the charger out of reach from me in my covers and placing obstacles in the way, the lazy option was now to read and write before falling asleep. A rather dismal living situation had improved my lifestyle by changing the path of least resistance concerning using my phone in bed.
Lessons from my findings on the ski trip can be applied to behaviours at home. By altering specific aspects of your environment, you could make it easier to change your habits. Maybe charging your phone in the kitchen would reduce its usage before bed. Maybe a tougher mattress and lumpy pillows would make it less appealing to have a lie in. Maybe laying out your running kit before bed would finally get you up for an early morning run. In any case, changing the small obstacles and incentives in your close environment might just be the laziest way to improve your lifestyle.
Photo by Tim Durgan on Unsplash