5 Words: Solving Procrastination with Group SMS

5 Words: Solving Procrastination with Group SMS
Andrew Martin
Stanford ‘13
T | @amartinsu13

Using only this..
Andrew Martin – Stanford ‘13

I got..
[93%] of students to send me a text about their lecture
&
[73%] of students to vote on their favorite classmate’s text from class

But why?
Well, students are generally good at taking notes during lectures..
But then we don’t look at the notes until weeks/months later to do homework or cram for the exam!

The Problem:
Students create their own stress by cramming for exams, rather than internalizing the material over the quarter.

The 5 Words Solution
I want to get students to review their lecture notes [THREE] times on the day of class:
First | Right after lecture
Second | In the late afternoon
Third | At night

How can you possibly get college students to review a lecture 3 times?!?
Aren’t they always in a rush?
(And isn’t that the original problem?)
It’s easy! Just follow 3 tenets of behavior design…

1) Keep it simple, stupid
People are lazy.
If you want them to do something time consuming OR
mentally draining OR
physically straining
THEY WONT DO IT

2) Make it social
Humans are social
creatures.
If you get them doing something their friends are doing, they will be more likely to continue doing it.

3) Make it fun
If people aren’t
enjoying it, they
won’t do it.
Use game mechanics: make it a competition

5 Words:
3 Steps
to get college students
to review lecture
3 times a day

Step 1
Immediately after class, you’re asked to come up with an interesting insight you learned and to text it to me in 5 words.
Why does this work?
It is a well-timed hot trigger!
You are texted when you are most able to respond.
It is simple!
Who doesn’t have time to text 5 words?

Step 2
In the late afternoon, you get a text with your classmate’s 5 words, and are asked to vote on the best insight.
Why does this work?
It is social!
You get to read all of your classmate’s responses
It is simple!
All you have to do is read the text, and respond with a #. Who can’t do that?

Step 3
At night, you find out what classmate got the most votes.
Why does this work?
It is fun!
You compete with your friends for the best insight of the day
It is simple!
Who doesn’t have time to read a text?

In my pilot, I had [14] participants for
5 days:
12 students
1 Professor
1 TA
The Results?!?

Response Rates
[93%]
24 of 26
[73%]
19 of 26

Feedback
Professor: “As a teacher I like the feedback [from seeing the student’s takeaways from class]”
Student (“The Good”): “Yeah I ended up thinking about lecture 3 times because of it”
Student (“The Bad”): “It might have helped me retain information more if you asked for a one sentence summary instead of an insight”

Your Takeaways for Texting Interventions
1) Keep it simple for the user throughout all steps of your intervention.
2) Let your users see other user’s progress. Have them vote on the best user.
3) Make it fun. Make it a competition.

Feedback?
Contact me (really)!
T | @amartinsu13
E | amartin6@stanford.edu

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5 Words: Solving Procrastination with Group SMS

by Andrew Martin on Jun 04, 2011

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