Low tech is the new high tech. A Kickstarter project from the Department of Motivation just raised more than $22,000 for a wearable band that doesn’t have any tech inside at all. The Flip Band doesn’t have a processor, nor does it have a display or charger. It’s simply a wristband with a different color on each side. Nonetheless, its creator claims it can motivate you to get things done better than any Fitbit or reminders app.
Just like with the most preposterous projects Kickstarter incubates, the Flip Band is wildly popular and shockingly successful.
It’s absurdly simple. The Flip Band has two sides: black and green. The black side indicates that you’ve yet to accomplish your task, while the green side signals that you’ve done what you set out to do. That’s right, you just flip the band over each time you accomplish a task, and that’s it. There’s no app for you to enter the task you need to complete. There’s no alarm to set on your phone. There’s no vibration to motivate you to act when you’re procrastinating. The only motivation Flip Band gives you to complete your task is the satisfaction of seeing that flash of green when you flip the band over.
It may sound like your typical crazy Kickstarter project, a lá the Potato Salad campaign, and it is — but just like many of the other outrageous projects Kickstarter incubates, the Flip Band is wildly popular and shockingly successful. The campaign has raised more than $23,000 with almost 1,000 backers onboard. Why, you may ask? Well, it’s simple, Flip Band’s creator Victor Mathieux, who also created the failed motivational app Everest: People aren’t inspired by their fitness trackers and reminder apps — they are annoyed by them.
So ironically, he created a band that has no technology at all and doesn’t rely on an app for anything. The Flip Band is as old school as can be, but it’s based on a few facts you’ll remember from Psychology 101. To turn goals into actions, three things need to happen: You must have the ability to do the task, the motivation to accomplish it, and a trigger that makes you do it. Over time, the behavior will become an ingrained habit, like brushing your teeth or combing your hair. Flip Band aspires to be the trigger that inspires you to do what you need to do.
The bands are sold in packs of two for $20, so that you can give one to a friend and help motivate each other to get that band on green. Flip Band basically looks like one of those Livestrong bracelets Lance Armstrong sold back in the 2000s.
Whether it actually works or not probably depends on the person who’s wearing it, although Mathieux doesn’t see it that way and neither do his supporters. The comments on the Kickstarter project are overwhelmingly positive. In fact, you’ll find no negative criticism at all — only questions about the project that appear to be answered quickly by Mathieux himself.
Is the Flip Band the answer to all our quantified self problems? Maybe, maybe not. Decide for yourself after checking out the spiel on Kickstarter.
