Blog Post #4-Raising Awareness

Week 4 and 5 were some of the easiest weeks of this project. I had gotten used to my shortened showers and not having to rush in in the mornings made me more conscious of my goal. These weeks were mainly just a continuation of what I had been doing and not much was different. A timer was still present to keep me in check but I found myself finishing even before it went off. The main way I would try to convince others in my family is to educate them on waters impact the environment and its cost per gallon. There is a lot of information I learned while doing this project and I believe that is the best way to have others adopt my behaviors. Along with being more knowledgable about the subject, this also has the benefit of having them critically think about the water they're using. This provided me with the motivation to stick to my goal. Taking a 7-minute shower may seem short, but it's not hard to enforce on yourself. Money can be a great motivator for many. Advertising the benefits other than the sustainability of taking shorter showers such as the fact that this will save you on your utility bill might be a good way to get people interested in trying this practice. For a person who is time-constrained in the mornings, this could give them a good structure to making their morning routine more efficient. I'm going to try and keep taking shortened showers from now on. Maybe not to the extreme that I have but definitely shorter than I used to. Coming from a 7 min shower to a 10 min shower might not seem like that big of a difference, but after having that short of a shower for 5 weeks, I won't take the time I have for granted as much as I have. The most effective part of this habit-forming process was the ease of it. Just setting a simple timer before you get in the shower every time might take some getting used to, but not long after it becomes second nature. I think that including the science and numbers have a great impact on actually interesting people to start conserving water this way. I haven't really looked into the other ways I could change my behaviors to become more sustainable ones, after this project I definitely am more interested in the simple or not so simple ways I could.