u/iwantboringtimes

Over 1-2 months ago, I decided to switch from plain black gel pen to dot markers for my checklists. (See, dopamine is -so- easy to trigger that anything AESTHETIC, including cute tiny colorful dots, can dial up dopamine.)

There are many brands of dot markers. Just get a (small) set with dark metallic colors and DOT TIPs. I'll explain why "metallic" at the end.

Now, I'll repeat again that the dot rewarding should be done AFTER task completion. Can be small tasks, so long as some effort is made before getting a dot. This is very important because we want the dot reward to be associated with getting to-dos done.

I've been mentioning about dot markers in this sub for over a month now. Why I finally decided to post a thread about it? Because during the past weekend, I decided to put a dot on the calendar hanging near the top of the staircase whenever I climbed those stairs. Result - I ended up 14 dots over the weekend, which represents 14 flights of stairs, average of 7-floors climb up per day.

Several times, I forgot to carry dot marker with me, which resulted in me REclimbing stairs because I really wanted to make dots on the calendar. Folks, it didn't feel like exercise, and I was using whatever reason to climb those stairs.

Aside from using stairs more, getting thru my checklists has been easier. (BTW, use a different color each day.) I also ended up getting more work done when I used (the day's) dot marker to crossed out done to-dos written with a black sharpie.

The contrast of black sharpie with metallic dot marker is, in a word, noice. Reminded me of a fellow redditor in this sub who commented that they like to cross out their to-dos with colored pencils.

I end with stating that the first set of dot markers I used were mild colors, which though also helpful, had a muted effect compared to the metallic dot markers. Metallic dot markers can also replace sharpies and other markers should this technique not work out for you.