MotivAider For Mobile PRO: Expanded Instructions and Help

1. Press New to begin a new behavior change project.
    
   
2. Define and enter your desired behavior. Be as specific as possible.
    
   Decide what it is that you intend to do, think or accomplish through your own thoughts or actions. For example, "Drink more water," "Be less critical," Breathe deeply," "Focus on what matters most," "Improve posture," "Get more exercise," "Reduce stress," "Eat healthier foods."
    
   
3. Devise and enter a personal message - a word, phrase or short sentence that will remind and motivate you to engage in the desired behavior.
    
   The purpose of your personal message is to trigger your desired behavior. It must do more than just remind you of what you intend to do. It must urge or motivate you to do it. Remember, this is a "personal" message, meaning that it need only work for you. It need not make any sense to anyone else. See some examples and learn more.
    
   
4. Test the available prompt types and select one.
    
   
5. Associate your personal message with the vibration prompt by mentally reciting your personal message while pressing Test. Repeat this once or twice. From now on, whenever you feel the selected prompt, you'll think your personal message.
    
   The purpose of this critical step is to essentially make the vibration prompt you selected stand for or automatically convey your personal message in the same way that a ringing telephone automatically conveys that someone is calling. The vibration prompt, in other words, should come to mean your personal message. To help create a solid association between the vibration prompt and your personal message, make a point of thinking your personal message the first few times each day that you feel the vibration prompt.
    
   
6. Decide how often to receive prompts and enter your chosen Time Interval. (Choosing a Time Interval of 5 minutes means you'll receive a prompt every 5 minutes.) If you're not sure what time interval to use, start with the default time interval of 10 minutes.
    
   It's important to understand that the primary purpose of prompts is not to schedule behavior at certain times, but to keep your behavior change intention on the front burner of your mind so you're more likely to act in accord with it. Aim for receiving prompts just often enough to get good results. There's no benefit in getting prompts more often than necessary, and in fact, receiving them too frequently can be annoying and detract from results. Remember, you can easily make adjustments as you go. Learn more. (PDF)
    
   
7. Choose an Interval Type. Choose Regular to receive prompts at regular intervals. (for example, once every 10 minutes). Choose Random to receive prompts at random intervals that are no greater than the time interval you set.
    
   
8. If you want prompting to start and stop automatically every day, enter Auto Start and Auto Stop times. If you'd prefer to start and stop prompting manually, leave the Auto Start and Auto Stop times at 00:00 and 23:59 respectively and use Pause to stop prompting and Resume to start prompting again. Note that even if you choose to set Auto Start and Auto Stop times, you can use Pause and Resume to stop and start prompting between these times.
    
   We added an AutoStart/AutoStop feature for the convenience of users who want to use the app more or less continuously on the same schedule every day and don't want to take a chance of getting off track. By the way, if you're familiar with the dedicated MotivAider device, the Pause and Resume buttons on the app essentially work the same way as "Set" and "Run" on the MotivAider device.
    
   Again, you can press Pause to stop prompting and Resume to start prompting any time between the AutoStart and AutoStop times. Just remember that whenever you press Pause, you must press Resume to start prompting again. Also, should you happen to press Pause before the AutoStop time and then press Resume after the AutoStop time, you won't receive prompts until the AutoStart time the next day.
    
   
9. Save your settings and begin receiving prompts. You're now MotivAided!
    
   Note again that if you start a new project or modify an existing project during the period between the Start and Stop times, your first signal may well come sooner than expected. Also don't be concerned if you occasionally receive extra prompts. Remember, the purpose of prompting is to keep your attention focused on your behavior change intention. It's not to schedule behavior to occur at specific times on the clock.
    
   
10. To make any changes in your project at any time, press Modify.
     
    Don't hesitate to tweak your project to get the best possible results. However, we suggest you make just one change at a time. For example, change the time interval and see what happens before changing the vibration prompt pattern or your personal message. If a particular change you make seems to have no effect, undo it before changing something else.
     
    Often the most powerful change is a change in your personal message. However, changing your personal message too often can weaken the association between the message and vibration prompt and thereby adversely affect results. When changing personal messages, always make a point of being especially thorough in carrying out Step 5.
     
    Don't be concerned if you're not noticing some of the prompts. You can get great results without being aware of each and every prompt. What matters is that you're being exposed to a "stream" of prompts that keeps you sufficiently aware of the behavior change you want to make to be able to make it.
     
    Be sure to check out our resources for MotivAider users. Although obviously not everything about the MotivAider applies to the app, these free resources are generally a good source for ideas and solutions.