Don’t put your scale under your bed
I recently bought a smart scale. Why? Because I like data and I think it’s fun to collect and analyze my weight. But… I noticed something funny.
When I bought this smart scale I put it somewhere in my room where I could see it and I weighed myself religiously twice a day.
Then, I cleaned my room and put the smart scale under my bed.
And suddenly, like magic, I just completely stopped weighing myself.
This graph shows the days I collected data points on my weight. These are the days when the scale was visible in my room.
And these are the days when I put the scale under my bed.
See the difference? There’s an important lesson here.
The triggers that you surround yourself with are important behavior modifiers.
For example, if you want to quit smoking, you should remove negative triggers that invite smoking. If you have a pack of cigarettes on your desk the whole time, of course it’s going to be hard to resist the temptation!
The cool thing is that we are in control of our environment. We can fill it with triggers inspiring good behavior and remove triggers invoking bad behavior.
So, if you want to make a habit of tracking your weight, don’t put your scale under your bed. Instead, put it somewhere you can see it.
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