I’m just getting back from vacation in Sao Miguel. Our last one before the baby comes. When I got back, I was really pleased to see the usage of the WeightWatchers strength training product I have been working on. So first, I want to welcome anyone who's new here from the training web app. Check it out here if you haven't yet. My goal with that was to provide a much more comprehensive fitness offering where you could actually track your progress, make programs, and see videos.
I'm persistently tinkering, so I built something else. Before I get into the background, I want to say thank you to everyone who's tried this habit-building product, this is now the third wave of people using it, and if you were in the first wave, you may already be noticing how much it's improved. Here's the link if you want to build a new habit; I'll explain more below:
A little background
When I was conducting my PhD research, I was trying to help people get started with resistance training. One thing we did in our intervention was set people up with text message reminders based on their own plan — if someone told me they wanted to do strength training at 3:00pm on Friday, I'd send them a reminder. It worked well: the intervention group did more strength training than the control group.
After my PhD, I did a 16-month stint as a postdoc researcher, where I learned about ecological momentary assessments — assessing someone every day rather than just at the beginning and end of a study. Here's the interesting part: people change day to day. Their motivation, mood, busyness, and stress all fluctuate.
That's powerful information. A low-motivation day might not affect Sarah the way it affects John, but when Sarah is feeling down, maybe that makes her less likely to act on her good intentions than John. Different people are different.
So, knowing that reminders play a powerful role in behavior change, and that the things driving behavior differ from person to person and change daily, I built a text-messaging coach that doesn't just check in on you — it learns from you.
Since I started using it, I've never been more consistent with practicing Portuguese. I've done at least 15 minutes of practice for 47 days straight.
If you want to try it, here's my advice:
Pick something you'll do consistently. Movement is a good example — it doesn't have to be strength training, since you probably won't do that more than 4–5 times a week.
Pick something you know you can actually do. If I tried to make an hour of Portuguese a day my habit, there's no way I'd stick with it.
Check back in on the website. Each day you'll get asked a new question about your habit — answering it reveals points.
Check out the social feed and cheer people on. Maybe they'll cheer you back — accountability can be powerful.
Respond to your texts with real detail. That's how everything gets logged and how the system starts learning from you.
I read these messages myself, so if you mention my name, I'll see it.
Looking forward to seeing what you might build!