Inspiration

Haven’t we all had those days where we stayed up all night finishing a project that was assigned two weeks ago? As a serial procrastinator, I certainly have. In fact, a fair share of all the projects I’ve worked on throughout my school life was done at the last moment. You may wonder why. The answer is fairly simple- I like working under pressure, and so do most procrastinators.

While a fair share of procrastinators point at the fear of failure to be their reason to push off work, I, along with other like-minded procrastinators, relish in the thrill and adrenaline rush provided by turning in your project at the last moment.

But, it becomes a problem when people can perform well only at the last minute. Long term practice has several dangerous effects including causing an increase in stress levels, mental fatigue, personality changes.

So, how can we break this habit of being able to work well under pressure? Well, we don't have to at all. We can just change it up to make it more healthy in the long run.

When you look at all the common productivity apps in the market, which are mainly just to-do lists and schedules, yeah, they can be aesthetic, but the truth is, they don’t work. A procrastinator would not benefit from planning in advance and the reason can be explained by the Ainslee-Rachlin Law, which explains the importance of instant gratification to procrastinators. Here’s an example. Let’s say I’m planning my morning for tomorrow and I have to choose between working out or scrolling through tik tok. Both tasks are of equal distance away and I know workout is better for my body, so I choose working out. Though, the next morning, when it’s time to workout, scrolling on tik tok seems so much more gratifying and rewarding, so I choose the easier task.

Instead of trying to change a procrastinator’s habit of working under pressure, why don’t we take advantage of it? Why don’t we use that pressure to help them start a task?

What it does

Meet PRO-crat-nation. Your new best friend to designing a productive life. Pro-crat nation helps you draw the uno reverse card on your weakness of performing under pressure and turns it into your biggest strength. How? Well, we use the principal of creating artificial pressure by setting deadlines on tasks and by dividing them into time-bound sub-tasks that offer rewards after completed. Artificial deadlines give a procrastinator the sense of urgency they need to stay on task without working 2 hours before the deadline.

Being exposed to pressure over the span of a couple of sub-tasks is healthier than working under pressure all at once, like when you’re pulling an all-nighter. Stress and pressure are actually healthy, and contribute a lot to developing your focus, work efficiency, time management skills and makes you a pro at hustling.

Now that we’ve showed the logistics of Pro-crat Nation, you may be wondering, “This is great and all, but I can’t trust myself to stay on track for long.” Don’t worry, we pair you up with an accountability partner who’ll be a fellow user. They can help keep you on track and stay motivated.

Now if you’re someone like me who’ll really do anything to not work when you don’t feel like it, we’ve got an option for you as well. Our focus-mode comes with an inbuilt pomodoro timer with a background white-noise player. Anytime you use your phone when you’re supposed to be working, your phone will continuously vibrate and play the affirmations you recorded while setting up your tasks to help you get back on task. The app automatically detects whenever you use your phone based on the direction it faces. That means, anytime your phone faces upwards during your work time, your affirmations automatically start playing. You can gain points on completing your tasks which you can later use to purchase free time or snooze passes on upcoming deadlines.

So, to give you an overview, you set a task, we keep you focused and on completing it, and you gain rewards! Woohoo!

How we built it

We used Figma to design the prototype and Canva to create the pitch deck.

Challenges we ran into

As complete beginners to technology and design, the team had to learn a lot about coding and design in such a short period of time. We also had to come up with a tangible way to create the application with as less coding involved as possible.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We learnt a lot about coding and design in the past two days. We also built a prototype of our app from scratch!

What we learned

We learnt to use Figma and design prototypes. We also learnt a lot about Canva and creating presentations. The research we did for the app helped us gain a thorough understanding about procrastination and the science behind it.