HeroMode started as a nebulous idea that kept growing over the years. This idea was shaped by several books on the topics of behavioral science, motivation, and habits. These insightful works make the science on human behavior accessible to everyone, and give us the tools to design our own behaviors and drive success. In this season of gratitude, we want to share with you the books that form the philosophical backbone of HeroMode!
We all have the natural drive to enrich our human experiences, to grow, and to achieve mastery. And often, we set goals to remind us of our aspirations. But goal setting can be tricky. Done well, it can guide us to success. Otherwise, as many of us have experienced, it can lead to frustration and disappointment.
Before we begin the goal setting season that comes with the new year, let's first build the right mindset for goals. As it turns out, how we think about goals can make a big difference in their effectiveness, and, more importantly, in our ability to enjoy the journey.
In this post, I finally complete my Adventure to quit Reddit! Thanks to HeroMode, I've been off Reddit for 415 days. At this point, I have forgotten what doom scrolling on Reddit used to feel like, and the grip it used to have on me. I've formed new routines, and content with this new norm without Reddit. If you have a bad habit that you are struggling to kick, or a new habit you wish to adopt, maybe HeroMode can help you too!
We've been taught to manage time with sophisticated tools and frameworks. And we should; time is a precious and limited resource. But what about another resource that has proven to be a key driver to productivity, motivation? In today's post, we explore why motivation management is the rising star in the productivity conversation. And of course, it has something to do with AI!
Motivation is truly a superpower, and with the right strategies, it's possible to unlock its potential to achieve seemingly impossible challenges. In today's post, we explore insights from Daniel Pink's book, "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" and his TED talk, "The Puzzle of Motivation." We look at the traditional carrot-and-stick approach, and then break down the puzzle of motivation into its three key elements: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Lastly, we discuss how HeroMode taps into intrinsic motivation to help people reach their goals. You too can unlock the superpower of motivation with HeroMode!
We had a couple of HeroMode releases last week. In v4.3, we improved the iPad layout to make it more consistent with the iPhone and web experience. And in the most recent v4.4 release, the Piggy Reward System is now available! With the Piggy Reward System, you can define rewards that motivate you. When you complete quests, you can earn coins that you can use to redeem rewards. We hope you will find Piggy to be a motivating addition to HeroMode!
We are currently working on a new motivation feature for HeroMode, called "Piggy". Piggy is a reward system where you can collect coins as you complete quests, and use the coins to redeem rewards. In this post, we'll give you a sneak peek of what it looks like!
Recently, I came across a TED talk about the importance of having fun. As someone who is a big advocate of using fun for productivity, I was excited to see that there is scientific evidence that backs up the importance of fun. Afterall, we are building HeroMode to make getting stuff done more fun! So in this post, we explore why fun is a key ingredient for both work and life, and how to leverage fun as a superpower for productivity.
HeroMode can be used in many different ways. In a previous post, I had described how I use HeroMode to break my Reddit habit. And since then, I have been successful in staying away from Reddit for many months! However, recently, I noticed a bug in my activity calendar, breaking my Reddit streak. This is of course unacceptable! So we implemented a data sync improvement, which has been released in v4.1. Now I can see my Reddit-free streak hitting more than 180 days!
Do you have a new habit you'd like to adopt? Here we lay out the three simple steps to use HeroMode as a Habit Tracker:
We also provide some additional tips to make your habit building journey joyful and successful.