Weekly Wellbeing: Self-hacking
Weekly Wellbeing
Self-hacking: aka, how to trick yourself into taking care of your wellbeing!
Hey everyone! It's time for another Weekly Wellbeing activity 🙂
According to Google hacking is defined as
the gaining of unauthorized access to data in a system or computer
which isn't really the kind of hacking we're going for this time 😛
When we say self-hacking, we mean ways of managing your routine and self in order to make things easier later on or that encourage you to take care of yourself day to day!
Examples of this include setting a timer for things like medication if you're prone to forgetting them, or even taking them with yummy juice if they taste gross! 
We're super keen to know:
Do you have ways of encouraging yourself to take care of your wellbeing?
Is there a way you could build a self-hack into your routine?
A personal example would be how I try to manage my sleep schedule on days off. If I don't have anywhere to be, then I really have no motivation to get up and start my day at a reasonable time. (my record is 5pm -yikes!)
What I try to do is tell myself:
You don't have to get out of bed for the day.You just need to shower, have some coffee, and have something small to eat, then you can go back to sleep!
Usually by the time I do that, i'm up and about and don't go back to bed. But if i do end up going to sleep again, at least i'm clean, hydrated, and have eaten something! Which means I'm way more functional and feel a lot better when I do get up!
What about you guys? 🙂
Have any self-hacks you can share? 
Comments
This is such a great topic - I had to jump in!
And what great responses, I might have to put some of these to use! 
Something I use is the "one minute rule". I am a biiiig procrastinator, yet I also like having things done, as that makes me feel less stressed (walking contradiction over here!) so - if I have something I need to do (i.e. make the bed so it's nice for me to get back into at night) and it takes less than one minute - I do it on the spot! It's actually a bit nuts how many extra little tasks I get through in a day that take a minute (ish!) rather than let them pile up which makes me feel accomplished instead of anxious!
To be honest I try to pair something unenjoyable such as cleaning with something enjoyable such as listening to a podcast. That's a hack that I used for most of my housework and it definitely is more motivating that way.
I love this thread! @MisoBear and @Tiny_leaf that is exactly how I motivate myself to do boring chores too, I got so excited about discovering a new podcast on the weekend, because I had heaps of random boring chores like weeding/ cleaning bathrooms/ sorting through junk to do, and zero motivation to do them. I feel like I've actually conditioned myself to do work when I hear a podcast now - I have to have one on whenever I unpack the dishwasher or sweep the floors or whatever.
I listened to two great This American Life episodes this week - Everyone's a Critic and Birds&Bees, and some great Conversations. Wilosophy's Ben Elton episode was the only thing that made me sort through a box of old uni notes 😉
Do you guys have any recommendations?
@MisoBear& @Tiny_leaf I do that too, so much easier if you're not focusing on the task you're not so keen on!
@Janine-ROI am the same! I put on a podcast and get itchy feet to do something productive
I found a super interesting podcast called Noble Blood - it's all true stories of royals throughout history, some of the not-so-well known ones. Kind of like listening to fairy-tales, but usually a bit more gory! All In The Mind is a really cool psychology podcast with so much interesting info and research on it! And I have yet to start it, but for all the Harry Potter fans out there - I have listed The Fox and the Foxhound: Love, Marriage and Harry Potter about a couple of whom one knows and adores HP and the other has never read it, so they read and discuss a few chapters at a time together. Looks good! 
@JazzInMay I've just added that podcast to my library, it sounds super interesting! I love a bit of history and gore! I also love All In the Mind. Such an interesting variety of topics, and they always research it really well.
A lot of the hacks in this thread actually remind me of some stuff I read about behavioural activation, which is all about this stuff - and there's quite a bit of evidence that getting yourself going can have a really profound impact on the kind of cycle of lethargy etc that can accompany depression. So these hacks may also be helping you to rewire your brain in the long term - so cool!
Image source: Science Direct, Full article here if anyone would like to geek out a bit.
My current state of health, just won't allow for it right now.
Great idea for a Weekly Wellbeing! I'm loving everyone's ideas so far. 🙂
@ecla34 Glad to see I'm not the only one who sometimes gets out of bed at 5pm.
I record alarms for medication reminders and record when I've taken them using my phone. If they taste bad, sometimes I block my nose when I take them.
@Bre-RO I do something similar. I leave my eye drops on my desk so that I can remember to take them during the day.
I have tried to find ways of building up my stamina and incorporating more exercise into my routine, such as walking instead of taking the bus, aiming to do a little bit more each time, taking the stairs, etc.
I've also been thinking of trying some apps to record how much water I drink or make it more fun such as Plant Nanny.
@Hozzles I've tried doing something similar with the activity books! I have a book where you can answer one prompt a day and see how your responses change over three years. I've also tried gratitude journalling and an app which has morning (e.g., 'One thing I like about myself') and evening (e.g., 'What went well?' 'One memory to remember?') journalling prompts.
@ecla34 oh my gosh I swear I live off these.
I think that most of mine just involve finding ways to motivate myself to do the stuff I know I need to do.
I have a few ways of "tricking" myself into eating. Mostly just fairy bread.. I can never resist fairy bread..
And drinking water because I'm really bad at that. I drink a lot of fruit juice with water in it. Also I try to drink all the water in my cup when I take my meds.
Hopefully I'll find some more ideas to "steal" in everyone else's replies!
@Tiny_leaf those are really clever! I like how when you need to eat/drink but are struggling, you go for things that are a bit more interesting to you! Fairy bread really is so amazing...genuinely tempted to make some now
Awesome idea for a well-being activity! @ecla34
I totally related when you spoke about struggling to find motivation to get out of bed. On my off days I make a point of putting my phone on charge in a different room, so I don't get stuck scrolling endlessly on my phone in bed (such a trap for me). One of my other hacks to get going for the day is to walk up to the local cafe to get coffee. By the time I've had a little walk, got some fresh air and caffeine, I'm usually keen to start my day.
I also trick myself into eating like you do @Tiny_leaf - my go to food is pasta! So if I'm struggling to eat that will usually get my appetite going.
Another thing I try to do is keep all my important vitamins/medications in various places (as I'm very prone to forgetting them). So I'll have a pack of everything I need in my purse, on my bedside table, on my desk at work. That way when I suddenly remember they are usually within reach.
Keen to read through everyone's answers 🙂
This tumblr screenshot comes to mind...
But it's so true! We all come to assume the best way to do things are in a 'typical', structured manner... but sometimes taking shortcuts can mean taking better care of yourself!
Also, wow... I was going to say the exact same thing as @Bre-RO, haha! I do the same thing, putting my phone out of the room before I go to sleep so I don't wake up and spend ages on it before I actually get up! Sometimes I admit it doesn't work (I'd walk over to get my phone then crawl back into bed, or get my laptop and lie in bed) but it's a start, I guess!
Another life-hack I have is that I like to read in the bath. Moreso I like the reading part more than the relaxing part, so when I get frustrated with myself that I haven't been reading as much as I like I tend to have more baths . Like I've said in the past, it's just so nice having no distractions and being relaxed! And a three in one hack, considering I'm getting clean and having some time for self-care.
Recently, I purchased the book '365 Days of Drawing' which gives a task to draw every day for a year. I haven't drawn since high school, but it's never too late to learn and it's a good way to keep me motivated and drawing things I wouldn't otherwise!
I definitely need more self-hacks, at the moment, though, so any ideas are welcomed (especially regulating a sleep schedule, hahaha).
