Procrastination Experiment

Overview

After hearing a number of my friends joke about procrastination and wishing that they could be more productive, I built a desktop product to experiment if a physical object is able to impact this habit.

Included

conducting user interviews, product research, and processing raw data
Rapid prototyping

I conducted a survey asking 70 students about their experience with procrastination. I defined procrastination as “the act of delaying or postponing an action (often without intentionally wanting to)”. Over 80% expressed that it was a key problem in their life, and that they were unhappy with the amount of time they “wasted”.

There are currently no physical products made to reduce procrastination. The closest thing would be productivity apps, like “Forest: Focus for Productivity”. It boasts of having “more than 2 million satisfied paying users”, which further suggests that this is a common issue.

More

Forest app : Locks the user out of their phone for selected periods of time so that they can focus on the task at hand.

Research

My research on procrastination showed that there was a lot more to it than just needing to focus (as the Forest app would suggest). “The Mood and Procrastination Journal” would suggest that it is linked to being organized and attuned to your emotions. Other examples have suggested it is because young adults have not yet learnt time management skills, and yet other products said it was because of a societal increase in digital distractions. As shown below, I distilled all of the data I collected from the surveys, individual student interviews, and online research to pick out 5 things that link to procrastination.

The Mood and Procrastination Journal : A self-help book to assist the user in staying on top of tasks and track progress

Challenge

Next, I needed to create way of addressing these 5 causes using physical items, and combine all of them into one desktop product. I prototyped different features and brought them back to the students I interviewed to test out. There is no one-size-fits-all to changing habits, and the approach that is most helpful to one person might not be the best approach for another. I designed the product to customizable allowing the user to choose which features to engage with, and easily turn the other ones around on their rod, hiding them from view.

I incorporated their feedback and created a final prototype made out of aluminum sheet metal (welded) and birch-faced plywood. Based off of the final user feedback, I believe this design to be effective in helping to prevent procrastination.