A pilot program to increase calm via daily affirmations.

1. Text2Calm: “I like ___!” huyentran stanford university spring 2011 a pilot program to increase calm via daily affirmations

2. The Problem: Negativity Bias towards negatives Constant criticism Expectation & evaluation Unattainable satisfaction When we let negative thoughts take over, we often forget or completely overlook anything positive…

3. The “I like __!” Solution Stressor: over-focusing on negatives Inspirations: Jessica’s Daily Affirmation youTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR3rK0kZFkg&feature=player_embedded) Candy Chang’s “Before I die…” Wall (http://candychang.com/before-i-die-in-nola/) Behavior Goal: declare 1/day “I like ___!” Idea: to get people to think about something positive once a day

4. The Guinea Pigs: 3-day mini trials Post-it, See it, Say it, Text it 3 participants Initial setup required Easy, effective Text reminder 3 participants Simplest, quickest response rate Easy to text back immediately Text & Write 2 participants Difficult - disparity between receiving text response & finding pen/paper to write “I like __!”

5. The Pilot Program Recruited via e-mail + google form 13 participants Setup: On a post it note write… “I like ___!” Say it + text Huyen @ (123) 456-7890 Place somewhere that is visible at least once a day 5 days Follow up text sent at end of day if no response

6. The Post-It Notes allows easier individual scheduling Where people put them: ~9/13 responses/day w/o text reminder Some remembered even w/o post-it note Some just forgot to send text response

7. The Good “Happy, optimistic about the day” Saying the affirmation out loud “made it really real and concrete” and felt “more inclined to actually take a moment to feel genuine appreciation” “It made me actually think about what I liked. I've been having some things on my mind lately, but this activity has helped to remind me of all the good things there are in life and how many things I have to be thankful for each and every day.” “It made me smile” “It made me kinda look at the bigger picture instead of focus on the things that aren't perfect…”

8. The Bad “more aware of the things I like, but felt too random to feel meaningful” “Not that much better, but maybe happy for 5 seconds” When distracted or too busy, “felt like I was scrounging up things to like”

9. Room For Improvement Make it easier Keep the same affirmation Narrow the topic ex: “I like noun!” or “I like something about myself!” Reminder of purpose To encourage meaningful affirmations Give participant feedback Track progress Rewarding task completion to motivate continuing Ex: let participant see a list of affirmations made so far

10. The Pilot Continues… Asked participants to continue for 3 more days Tried adding structure Sent random text prompt with a specific topic Day 1: Love the skin you’re in! What’s something that you like about yourself? Day 2: Spread the love! Tell someone else something you like about them. Day 3: It’s the weekend! What do you like to do in your free time? More enthusiastic responses More complicated to design Strayed from simplifying behavior

11. The End? People did feel better, even if just for 5 seconds I felt really happy just reading responses… saying them out loud must feel even better For most people, program was positive Moving forward, I want to design for the participants who didn’t feel as positive… How can I trigger these people to take the daily affirmation more seriously and actually think about something meaningful + positive?

12. Questions? Huyen Tran E-mail: huyen@stanford.edu Twitter: @thehuyentran Check out what my classmates are up to! Blog: cs377t.posterous.com Twitter: #CalmingTech Want More Calming Tech?