Setting personal goals for life pursuits is a common motivational strategy; however, achieving these goals is not as easy as setting them. Distractions are the antithesis of gaining traction towards intentional pursuits, as they are disruptors that take away attention towards the desired area of focus (T. K. Metzinger, 2017, p. 20). During full-blown episodes of mind wandering, individuals lose autonomy over their mental control (T. K. Metzinger, 2017). Disruptions are becoming increasingly complex with the ubiquity of personal communication devices that provide direct physical access to attention, making it even more challenging for those who wish to proactively take action on their self-determined pursuits in life. It has become imperative to support the maintenance and enhancement of the inherent propensity to create conditions that support this base human psychological needs (Ryan & Deci, 2020).
While distractions have existed throughout humanity and are not unique to the recent times, technology users experience higher challenges today when managing new information demands. Georg Franck’s “economy of attention” has gained traction since the mid-1990s describing our modern economy in the information age where human attention has become the primary market for capitalization (van Krieken, 2019). Personal mobile technology, such as smartphones and physically attached wearable devices, are accessible to the user throughout their day. Allowing direct access to user attention encourages digital marketplaces to compete for the limited resource of user attention (Oberauer, 2019), favoring divisive and psychologically harmful content because of its profitability in user engagement (Chivukula et al., 2019; White & Boatwright, 2020). A 2019 study by Kushlev & Dunn shows that parents are increasingly distracted by smartphones; parents report feeling more distracted and losing the sense of social connection when spending time with their children (Kushlev & Dunn, 2019).
Gaining autonomy over one’s personal pursuits is critical in the concept of self-formation and overall wellbeing (T. Metzinger, 2013; Ryan & Deci, 2020). Autonomy is the capacity to establish and sustain individual goal commitments through self-regulation instead of regulation and imposition from others. People whose motivation is self-authored, as opposed to externally regulated, typically have heightened interest, confidence and excitement, which manifests as enhanced persistence, performance, and creativity leading to heightened vitality, self-esteem, and overall well-being (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Whether a person lives in individualistic, collectivist, vertical or horizontal society – if that person acts autonomously by his or her values, he or she is likely to experience a greater sense of well-being (Nalipay et al., 2020; Ryan & Deci, 2020).
Bringing awareness to one's subjective experience and behavior can produce a change in the valuation of learned but unhealthy behaviors, leading to self-regulatory shifts that result in sustainable behavior change without force (Ludwig et al., 2020). Aside from bringing attention and awareness to the target behavior, people must not only experience competence or efficacy, but they must also experience their behavior as self-determined for intrinsic motivation to be in evidence (T. K. Metzinger, 2017; Ryan & Deci, 2020).
While the risks of technological distractions reducing autonomy have already been outlined, smartphones are still effective channels to leverage in developing support systems for self-determined pursuits as assistive tools successfully increase traction towards intended behavior (Li et al., 2019). This research study uses a user-centered design framework to combine insights from behavioral strategies with user insights, to propose a desirable design solution that aids in self-regulation towards pursuits.