Emotionally Intelligent Signage

Recently, I watched this “pecha kucha” presentation from Daniel Pink , author of DRIVE: The surprising truth about what motivates us.  Ever since, I have been a huge fan of his archive on “Emotionally Intelligent Signage”.  After seeing some of the examples and how effective they’ve been I realized that this could be a valuable tool in helping people change health habits.  In fact, it might be why the FDA has recently made their cigarette health warnings so graphic.

I decided to try this myself.  I’ve been struggling to drink enough water.  My day consists of very little time spent near my desk where the bottle resides. Therefore, I needed some type of “emotional” trigger that would force me to desperately reach for those 32 ounces of afternoon delight.  First, I had to decide what the message would be.  I knew that I needed to drink more water because it had been affecting my workouts.  I was feeling lightheaded and a bit dizzy after a taxing bout of exercise.  So, I create a reminder that would appear on my cell phone and computer every hour, “I know I’m busy, but drinking water is important to me.”   The message expressed empathy and contained an affirmation.

It has been working like a charm.  In the past two weeks I’ve consumed by 64 ounces of water per day!  What could be an “Emotionally Intelligent Message” that you use to trigger a health habit?