Randall Parker cites a recent study showing that Electronic Reminders More Than Double Exercise:
The Dell Axim X5, chosen for its large-sized, easy-to-read screen and good contrast, was fitted with a program that asked participants approximately three minutes’ worth of questions. Among the questions: Where are you now” Who are you with” What barriers did you face in doing your physical activity routine” The device automatically beeped once in the afternoon and once in the evening; if participants ignored it the first time, it beeped three additional times at 30-minute intervals. During the second (evening) session, the device also asked participants about their goals for the next day.With this program, participants could set goals, track their physical activity progress twice a day and get feedback on how well they were meeting their goals. After eight weeks, the researchers found that while participants assigned to the PDA group devoted approximately five hours each week to exercise, those in the control group spent only about two hours on physical activities-in other words, the PDA users were more than twice as active.
One surprise was the participants’ positive response to the program’s persistence. The PDA users liked the three additional “reminder” beeps that went off if they failed to respond to the first one. In fact, almost half of them wound up responding to the PDA only after being beeped for the fourth time.
“The PDAs can really keep on you,” King observed with wry humor. “We were surprised by that; we thought by the time they heard the fourth beep, they might find it annoying and not respond at all.”