Motivating people in the middle

Interesting study that demonstrates that people might retain motivation better if their progress is framed in certain ways. Basically, if they're just starting out on something, measure their progress in terms of how far they've come. If they're nearing the end of a task, measure their progress in terms of how much work remains. From Psychology Today:

In a final study, the authors looked at people's motivation to do a boring proofreading task.  They had to proofread 9 documents.  Some people got a progress bar showing how many they had done so far.  Some got a progress bar showing how many documents were yet to be completed.  A third group knew that they were going to do 9 essays, but they just had a marker showing where they were in the task.

 The group that had a progress bar showing how far they had come from the start was most effective at proofreading (as measured by the number of typos they found per second) when they were near the beginning of the task than as they progressed.  The group that had a progess bar showing how much remained to be done was most effective as they neared the end of the task. 

 And in the middle? 

 Of interest, the group that did not have a frame of reference that focused on either the beginning or the end of the task was effective on the first few and last few documents, but performed worst in the middle.

Give them regular feedback at smaller intervals to keep them motivated.

Lots of implications for fitness clients, weight-loss goals, and everyday life in general.


I remember talking to a friend who said that he'd come up with an idea for a gym that would function essentially like Chuck E. Cheese -- where clients would earn tickets or tokens for completing their workouts (or for running a certain number of miles, say), and then they would be able to cash in those tickets for prizes (like shirts and water bottles). 


I think there are some problems with this model, since I want my clients to be intrinsically motivated (mostly), but I think the larger concept is useful. People like frequent feedback; they like milestones and landmarks; they do better with concrete rather than abstract goals. 


If you can only do 1 pull-up, setting a goal of being able to do 40 is daunting. It would be better to set a goal of doing 5, then 10, then 15, and so on... -- and celebrate those milestones in some tangible way. We need an adult equivalent of getting a gold star next to your name in kindergarten. Sounds silly, but it can be powerful.