Can pairing a chore with a guilty pleasure get you to the gym?

It can, a little, because the trick gives a dull chore a treat that you can only get while doing it. Researchers call it temptation bundling. You pair something instantly gratifying but guilt-inducing, like a page-turner audiobook, with something valuable whose rewards come later, like exercise. Keep the audiobook for the gym and going to the gym becomes the way to find out what happens next.

In the first test, people were randomly sorted into three groups: gym-only access to tempting audio novels, encouragement to save the audiobooks for the gym, or nothing. At first the two bundled groups visited the gym 51% and 29% more often than the control group. Afterwards, 61% chose to pay for gym-only audiobooks, which the researchers read as demand for this kind of commitment device.

But the honest part is the fade. In that first study the effects declined over time, particularly after Thanksgiving. A much larger trial with 6,792 people found a modest but lasting boost: a weekly workout became 10-14% more likely, for up to seventeen weeks after the program. And telling people to bundle, on top of handing them free audiobooks, added only a modest benefit. Temptation bundling is a real nudge, not a permanent fix.