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Hot take: the 15 minute timer on my laundry actually fixed my whole evening routine
For about a year I kept losing my nights to one dumb habit, starting a load of laundry at 8pm and then forgetting it sat in the washer till midnight. I tried phone alarms but I'd swipe them away without thinking. Then in January I bought a cheap $8 mechanical kitchen timer and set it for 15 minutes, the exact time my washer takes on the quick cycle. When it dings I have to physically walk to the machine to shut it off, so there's no way to ignore it. My wet clothes pile has basically vanished and I've gotten back close to an hour each night. Curious if anyone here uses an old school timer for other chores, or am I just late to something obvious?
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rubys8023h ago
That $8 timer works because your brain treats the ding as a real event, not a phone buzz you can flick away. There's actual research on this, something called the Zeigarnik effect, where an unfinished task keeps nagging at you until it's closed out, and the physical walk to the machine is what closes it. You could probably use the same trick for anything that needs a body in a room, like pulling bread out of the oven or switching the sprinkler.
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