This morning my alarm went off and it woke me up but not fully. I woke up in that grey zone between consciousness and unconsciousness for I was deep enough where I could have slept past the alarm and resumed my peaceful slumber, but also shallow enough where I could have pulled myself out from bed, stagger across the room and turn my damn phone off if I wanted to.

I decided to get up, despite only having entered my bed five hours prior, despite having a quite interesting dream that was rapidly leaving my memory but perhaps still salvageable if I dived back into sleep right then to rescue it, because there were consequences for not doing so: I had a surgical ward round to attend at 7am and attendance was mandatory and I would rather not risk the chance that nobody would notice.

There were certainly reasons why I would turn up even if there was no attendance: the rounds are filled with learning opportunities, the team is quite friendly and each day promises new conversations, new stories to be uncovered, new bonds to be formed between colleagues, patients and doctors, but at that moment, at 6am, these reasons might not have been enough to force me out of bed – no, I needed the extra edge of punishment to take action.

Our behaviours are often driven by motivation, but sometimes, when we’d just don’t feel like it and would really rather just not, setting artificial stresses and accountability measures can be a force for action, an insurance against laziness.

Joining a running group creates a commitment to run, and the danger of social disappointment gets you moving; hiring a piano teacher creates a cost to be paid, and the danger of wasted money gets you practicing; writing a to-do list creates an expectation to be productive, and the danger of self sabotage puts you to work. These actions create a final hurdle for our lazy selves to jump through, a hurdle that hurts more than others, because the pain of punishment is generally more memorable than the pain of unrealised reward.

And thank God these hurdles exist, because without them I would have missed a pretty great day.