Tiny Habit: Water plants
Goal: Water plants every morning before I leave the house
Result: Partial Success
I have always wanted to develop a successful greenhouse. However, I have never had the consistency required to tend to one plant so, caring for an entire greenhouse or garden seemed out of the question. Every plant I have ever owned eventually withered up and died because I forgot to consistently water it.
One way I could approach this problem would be to only raise plants that require minimal water. For example, succulents are great candidates for this. However, since I already own a flower plant I decided to formulate my trial around this particular plant.
In order to encourage myself to water the rose bush daily, I decided to create a path of least resistance that incorporated the plant.
- Hang clothes outside
- Get water from kitchen
- Water plants
Outfit hanging up
Flower pot
By hanging up my outfit for the next day outside on the clothesline the night before, I would be forced to go outside where my plants are every morning. However, this plan’s success is contingent on whether I complete steps 1 and 2. While this did work for the first 3 days of the trial, I eventually became too lazy to hang my clothes out on the balcony. This led me to forget about the plant outside and subsequently kind of forget about the overall task at hand.
If I were to redo this exercise I would like to change the location of the potted plant. While it’s not ideal, I could place the plant(s) on the window sill inside the kitchen. This way fetching water would not be as troublesome. Additionally, I could cut out step 1 entirely because I naturally go to the kitchen more often than the balcony. The primary drawback to this solution is that dirt could contaminate food or dirty the counter if I were to be careless.