According to a study published by Katherine Milkman in 2014, bundling temptations helps us overcome “time inconsistency,” the notion that we all tend to value immediate rewards much more than future ones.
April 27, 2017
-HuffPost
Recent surveys show that overworked Americans put work-life balance near the top of their wish lists — but if the experts can’t seem to manage it, how can the rest of us ever hope to? According to Katherine Milkman, at least part of the problem with work-life conflict is simply the overly optimistic way we humans tend to plan (or, worse, not plan) for the future.
March 28, 2017
-The Cut
“TODAY talked with two experts, including Katherine Milkman, to find out which resolutions are hardest to keep, and how you can still tackle them.”
December 30, 2016
-TODAY
“It can be hard to overcome the inertia of inaction or bad habits, but the positive expectations about “next week,” “next month,” or “next year” might help people to get going. Indeed, researchers have found that people do at least take the first step on these new beginnings.”
December 29, 2016
-Scientific American
“Studies show that even arbitrary, nonessential objects can become powerful cues for memory. Which goes to show it’s not just priceless family jewels or heirlooms that make for memory cues; they can be anything imbued with meaning. Earlier this year, psychologists Todd Rogers and Katherine Milkman published a paper demonstrating this neatly.”
December 23, 2016
-Vox
It can be hard to motivate yourself to go to the gym after a grueling day at the office. Use temptation bundling to help get you off the couch and back on the treadmill.
December 7, 2016
-Reader's Digest
An overview of Prof. Milkman’s research and undergraduate career at Princeton for the Princeton Alumni Weekly.
October 26, 2016
-Princeton Alumni Weekly
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?
October 21, 2016
-New York Magazine
People don’t just use these landmarks to organize the memories of their lives; we use them to organize memories of ourselves, too, something they call “temporal self-appraisal.” Maybe you did not make a ton of progress over the summer on the book you’re writing (or whatever), but that was summer you. This is September you!
September 1, 2016
-New York Magazine
An interview with Professor Jihae Shin of the Wisconsin School of Business, and Professor Katherine Milkman of the Wharton School on their research on the impact of backup plans on overall performance.
September 2016
-Harvard Business Review
Jihae Shin and Katherine Milkman’s results showed that those who made those backup plans ended up performing worse on the task at hand. And the researchers’ follow-up questions showed that this was due, at least in part, to a diminished drive for success.
August 17, 2016
-The Washington Post
The best-laid plans are those that don’t include backup plans. In a series of studies, Jihae Shin and Katherine Milkman found that when people make a backup plan for their goals, their performance on the primary goal can suffer because they tend to put less effort into achieving the primary goal.
August 16, 2016
-The Wall Street Journal
To help conquer the challenges of forgetting to do something, Katherine Milkman and co-author Todd Rogers find that the key to remembering may actually be something completely unrelated to your intention – and something that stands out from the routine of everyday life.
August 15, 2016
-Knowledge@Wharton
Human beings are naturally loss averse. On the one hand, back-up plans are useful fail-safe measures. On the other hand, back-up plans can become excuses—leading people to give-up before failure is even apparent.
August 5, 2016
-Boston Globe
Recent research by Hengchen Dai and Katherine Milkman has found that tracking employee behavior with regards to hand washing can increase hand hygiene compliance but after employee tracking stops, compliance levels dropped below the rates before tracking was implemented.
July 18, 2016
-Harvard Business Review
Simply wanting to change certain behaviors that we know raise the risk for health problems isn't enough to get most of us to follow through, but University of Pennsylvania’s Katherine Milkman has a concept known as “temptation bundling” to help make positive behavior changes.
July 7, 2016
-NPR
Calendar alerts, notes, and even the old-fashioned string-around-the-finger work occasionally, but they don’t always provide the reminder at a time when you need it most, and they’re so common that they are easily overlooked or ignored. A new report published in Psychological Science finds that using reminders by association is a better method for remembering.
June 15, 2016
-Fast Company
People often claim that “it pays to have a plan B” and “the best laid plans” often go awry. However, new Wharton research shows that merely thinking through a backup plan may actually cause people to exert less effort toward their primary goal, and consequently be less likely to achieve that goal they were striving for.
June 2, 2016
-Knowledge@Wharton
Temptation bundling offers a simple way to accomplish these tasks that are always important, but never feel urgent. By using your guilty pleasures pull you in, you make it easier to follow through on more difficult habits that pay off in the long-run.
May 23, 2016
-The Huffington Post
Most of us have stubborn items like these in our to-do apps, those tasks that never seem to get done, such as taking a suit to the dry cleaners or getting the dog groomed. Nothing bad happens when we don't do them, so we don't do them, even if our rational brains know they should get done. This article discusses several techniques to combat procrastination based on research by Professor Katherine Milkman, among others.
March 14, 2016
- PC Magazine