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A while back, I asked y’all to help me come up with ways to try and trick myself into drinking more water. Homie Rin commented with a pretty genius hack for getting herself to drink more water. But, the beauty of this hack is that it can be used to influence ANY kind of behavior you want to encourage!
And it uses pretty bracelets to get ‘er done…
I’m super crappy at drinking water, so I had to hack too. I made myself eight pretty bead bracelets (red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, purple, pink — a rainbow!), and when I get dressed I slip them onto my left wrist. Each time I drink a glass of water throughout the day I move one over to my right, so I can see I’ve drunk at least eight glasses a day. I don’t always manage it, but the visual reminder makes it much more likely.
This bracelet idea could work with reminding yourself to take medications, to get up and stretch your legs for office worker-types, or reminding yourself to just think positive thoughts throughout the day.
What would YOU use this bracelet hack for?
Breastfeeding, which side is next up.
I did that!
I tried doing that, but I just ended up taking the bracelet off, fidgeting with it, and forgetting what side it should go back on!
That is brilliant!
I totally was going to comment just this.
So easy, and I took one i could keep wearing unther the shower etc. aswell.
I just use a hair elastic!
Thinking of trying this out for drinking more water. Great idea!
If a reminder isn’t enough and you need motivation too, you could start out wearing no bracelets and reward yourself with one for every glass you drink. Then you get to end the day with a happy rainbow that you totally earned!
There has to be a way I can build this into my essay writing time and studying to lessen procrastination…bracelet for every 500 words written or chapter read or something similar. Brilliant!
I need to build up my leg strength before knee surgery in 6 weeks and I have to do 6 sets of 20 leg lifts, seems easy but my muscles are in as bad a shape as my knees lately and my memory is horrible. I am going to make 6 of these bracelets using thin elastic and E beads (big seed beads) and switch sides as I do each set, since I will be having to do a lot of PT afterwards I am sure they will still get used.
Oh, that’s a FABULOUS usage!!! Good luck with that!
I figured I better get right on it and saw some nickle free ones and bought a set of 9
5 of the silver are for the straight leg raises
3 are for water
and I am painting the remaining silver bright red to move on the days I work out at the gym, I told all my friends so they can look to see how I am doing and support me in it
http://trinaxxl.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/using-bracelets-to-hack-my-habits/
There is a pic on my blog (I linked back to this article actually) right after I got them this morning and before I painted the red one.
Maybe I could use something similar for each healthy choice I make…. say no to chips gain a braclet, give in to chocolate lose one. Hmm.
Me: “I’ve got minus three bracelets again?!”
Now I just need something to remind me to wear the bracelets..=P
xx
Note on the bathroom or makeup mirror? Or just a pretty rainbow picture? (if you go with the suggested rainbow motif)
Ooh that’s a good idea! Functional and decorative ^_^
xx
Could this work to not do something to? Like not smoke or drink of not bite my nails or etc. and if so, how?
A friend of mine is doing something similar to kick a habit – he made himself a leather bracelet and every day he doesn’t indulge in the bad habit he’s trying to break, he puts a bead on the bracelet. If he indulges, all the beads come off and he starts again at square one.
Fun idea!
Eight glasses (8oz) of water is actually a bit excessive though. Most of us do need to drink more, but it turns out that the study that number came from said that healthy people consumed the equivalent of eight glasses of water a day- counting the water in other beverages and in foods.
Wish I had a link handy to cite that, but maybe another fine reader will?
🙂