The Secret To Sticking To Your Resolutions Might Be To Wear A Rubber Band Around Your Wrist (Really)

This simple motivation trick could work for you. (Photo: FLIP BAND)

Here’s an easy enough solution to accomplishing those harder-than-you-realized goals: Wear a rubber band around your wrist.

Let us explain. This week, a Kickstarter campaign for the FLIP BAND launched online, landed on Reddit, and almost immediately met its funding goals. The idea was simple: a dual-colored rubber band that you wear around your wrist each day, “flipping” from one color to the other the minute you complete any daily goal.

Basically, this gives you instant affirmation the moment you’ve completed your task for the day — got your run in, ate a healthy breakfast, downed the contents of your water bottle before noon, so on and so forth.

It almost seems too simple to be effective. But then again, when you think about it, the FLIP BAND (or any similar rubber-band strategy) is sort of like a one-and-done checklist you carry with you as a reminder.

According to Nick Forand, PhD, a clinical psychologist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, there’s definitely a mental method to this crazy-easy madness. “It’s well-known that appropriate incentives can be great motivators,” he tells Yahoo Health. “And the closer in time the reward occurs to the desired behavior, the more likely it is to be reinforcing.”

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So for something like the FLIP BAND, the instant satisfaction of visible results entices us to stay on track. “It has the advantage of immediate reinforcement,” Forand explains. He says he could he could see people using a rubber band much like they would wearable tech like fitness trackers — which are great for some healthy go-getters. (Though, fitness trackers aren’t for everyone — “adoption rates are high for wearables, but adherence is modest,” Forand says. “Recent research has shown about a third of people stop using their trackers within six to 12 months.”)

The big question is whether or that “boom, done!” effect will be enough for people to continually wear (and flip) the rubber band without a true reward for their efforts. (It’s no $20 bill or chocolate cupcake, after all.) “The incentives have to be desired to really induce behavior change,” he explains. “Will flipping a band over be reinforcing enough? Probably for some people, but not others.”

For some, a rubber band may be enough. Forand also likes the cost-effective nature of adopting this method. He says it’s definitely worth a try if you’re having trouble with your resolutions.

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Although a fail-proof way to reach any goal doesn’t exist, there is a key principle to keeping on track: “Being accountable to someone else,” Forand says. “We know from our work with Internet-based treatment that holding people accountable for their progress within a program makes them more likely to complete it.” An example of this would be recruiting a workout buddy, or enlisting a partner to help you launch your new website venture. If you lean on each other, you’re more likely to stay the course.

Again, nothing works for everyone, but that’s OK. “Try multiple strategies until you find the right one for you,” says Forand — because there is an effective method for you.

Might as well start with the rubber band you’ve already got one in your junk drawer, right? Think of it as a holdover. Flip it right after you get off the treadmill for results you’ll see on your wrist — before you notice them taking hold in your body, that is.

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