We’ve been thinking a lot about motivation – particularly how we can create more of it. Following on from the gamification trend, a broader bunch of ideas seem to be forming around the technology of motivation. These are creative tech solutions that acknowledge the everyday hurdles that prevent us from reaching our full potential – and help us defeat them.

What we like most about them is their honesty and their simplicity. They generally accept us at our most sluggish or unfocused and try and work with us. Take Write or Die – a technological solution to writer’s block. If you procrastinate too long, an annoying bell starts to sound. If you procrastinate for much longer, then your work is literally deleted in front of your eyes. That’s a pretty clever way of making you write with a freedom and purpose you might normally lack.

Or Gym-Pact, a digital punishment box for skipping the gym where you essentially bet yourself that you’re going to go. A minimum of $5 a missed work-out is your punishment (direct debited straight out of your account) plus the added irritation that your lost wager is divvied up amongst the smug people that actually made it in.

We see a big trend emerging around the technology of motivation and plan on playing around with it some more as part of our ongoing R&D stream.. Noel Coward once said to his actors ‘If you must have motivation, think of your paycheck on Friday’. It’s tough to admit but sometimes the reason we want to achieve something in the first place isn’t enough to keep us going. With all the ambition in the world, sometimes we need to find our incentives a little closer to home.

Posted on Monday, March 12th, 2012 under Archive.
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