1. Motivation comes in waves throughout the day, with peaks when a person feels pumped and motivated to make changes, and troughs when motivation is low. 2. When at a peak of motivation, a person can make environmental changes like removing junk food and placing healthy snacks in prominent places, which will help influence behavior even during low motivation periods later. 3. There are frameworks for identifying motivation peaks, including using a motivation schedule to anticipate peak times like mornings or after exercise, noticing motivation triggers like hanging out with motivated friends, and doing motivation reflection exercises to build self-awareness of peaks.

1. Identifying Motivation Waves
Nishant Jacob
nishantj@stanford.edu
*Based on BJ Fogg's Research, No image in this presentation belongs to me

2. What's a motivation wave?
Photo: http://nees.oregonstate.edu
Your Motivation ebbs and flows through the day
- its like a wave, with peaks and troughs
- the peaks are when you're pumped, the troughs when you don't feel like
doing jack squat
When you feel motivated during the day
- you can use that motivation to do something hard that will structure your
future behavior
- when you're pumped up you can make big changes to your environment
like hiding all the junk food and putting healthy snack in prominent places
Why does this help?
- cause later in the day when you're at a low motivation trough
- it's just easier to eat the healthy food
- it's more prominent so you'll do the healthier behavior even when you're
not as motivated

3. Frameworks for identifying
motivation wave peaks
Photo: mathcats.org
1. Motivation Schedule
2. Motivation Triggers
3. Motivation Reflection
4. Motivation Automation

4. 1. Motivation Schedule
photo: lausd.net
Daily Motivation Peaks:
- waking up
- going to bed
- meal times
- end of work/school day
Weekly Motivation Peaks:
- start of the weekend
- start of the work week
Monthly/Yearly Motivation Peaks:
- birthdays
- new Years
- holidays - christmas

5. 2. Motivation Triggers
Activities/Events
photo: messymandella.com
- after exercising
- after completing a task
- after watching an inspiring movie
People
- after hanging out with a coach
- after hanging out with a motivated friend
Places
- walking into a gym
Contexts
- when you hit your spring cleaning mood

6. 3. Motivation Reflection
photo: amandalinehan.com
Teach someone to recognize motivation peaks
- quick reflection/introspection exercises
Observe own physiology
- have people recognize their state of mind/physiology when at the peak of a
motivation wave
Reflect on own state
-build the behavior via tiny habits of keeping track of your motivation peaks through
the day by recognizing how they make you feel.

7. Photo: openclipart.org 4. Motivation Automation
Automated reflection
- psycho-physiology measurements
- wear sensors that track you skin conductance, heartrate, pupil dilation, voice
amplitude to measure when you're in a motivated state
- correlate motivation with physiology