Home2Sanctuary Project

Elyse Marr May 9, 2011

The Study

  8 people with different types of work and commute experiences: ranging from 5 minute walk commute, to 1.5 hour train ride, to students.

  one week trial

  2 texts each day

 Most participants felt that they had ok ways to relax, but they could be better.

Quick & Immediate Affects

  “think a little bit more!”

  “Makes me aware.”

  “Stress is amplified by being tired.”

  “I can't take work home with me”

  Realizations

 More Mindfulness

  Appreciation Helpful Reminders for health

Most successful Feedback from a Participant

  The most stress person:   Ranking 4 out of 5 of stress level.

  “I really have no good way to relax at the end of the day, but I deal with it”

  My stress is amplified my being tired.

  My home can be quite distracting.

  After a week:   reduced his stress level from 4 to 3.

  His mindfulness went from a 1 to a 4   It helped me remember that the home

should be a relaxing sanctum

Outcomes

  Overall, stress levels stayed the same or decreased.

  BUT! Every single participant said they increased mindfulness of their relaxation techniques.

  LOTS of evidence that people are being mindful in other ways, even other areas of their life.

Adding he personal touch of knowing what they did, (even though the questions were the same!) created the social pressure.

  These texts made people feel like they were being watched: “Sometimes I felt guilty.” (Started to read a book instead of watching TV.)

  “I liked the personal element, how you would take what I sent earlier in the day and then riff on it for the evening prompt. It made deliberate relaxation salient”

  “yeah, it motivated it, and was helpful, but the day after i went back to my old ways”( One Saturday day I didn’t ask the question, the student wasn’t taking time out for himself)

Mindfulness creates Mindfulness.

  “It also got me thinking about what I do when I'm not working and how they make me feel.”

  “I could see it helping me over time to be more conscious of what I do in non-work times.”

  “[I realized that] I'm really not that stressed even with all the juggling in my life”

It was not prescriptive, so People made it work for them

  “It's somewhat different from my normal outlook on daily life, where I try not to separate work and leisure into distinct categories, one that is stressful and one that is not. Instead I try to integrate the two, and be calm across both realms, so this intervention felt like it wasn't totally relevant to me personally.”

  I don't think of things at home as ways to destress for the most part. But it was helpful to reflect on what I was choosing to do with my time. It brought more satisfaction. Sometimes it can be stressful just choosing what to do at home, of several options. Answering the question made me think and give something specific to do.

  “that if planned with enough openness, it can be fun and help bolster my motivation to work once i've re-resumed”

Design Takeaways

  Don’t tell them to do an action – report their action, and they’ll adapt behavior to be better.

  Someone on the receiving end creates social pressure.

  Designing for mindfulness – it leads to relaxation

  Food, TV, and social activity was the only de-stressors. How might we design for more enduring relaxation techniques, (meditation, breathing, etc)?

How we got here

Expert focus: Help HR people help their employees leave and come to work relaxed. Quick Crummy Trial: Step into your home with a smile Text2Calm: Home2Sanctuary created mindfulness about relaxation at home. LONG TERM GOAL FOR CALMING TECH: Make the entire commute time become mindful, relaxation time.