Shock your bad habits away with Pavlok

As the saying goes, “we are all creatures of habit” and the creator of Pavlok, a new wearable, believes wholeheartedly in this mantra.

Pavlok helps to reinforce positive behavior habits. How? Well, it electrocutes you. Seriously.

For $250 the wearable wristband will shock you whenever you ignore a reminder or alert that you set it to work with. Have a 6am alarm set because you need to get your workout in before the start of a jam-packed day? Well, if you snooze your alarm, then Pavlok will let it slide. Snooze the alarm again, and you’re getting electrocuted.

The idea behind the wearable is to have you hold yourself accountable, with real-life, immediate consequences whenever you renege on a personal promise.

You can give other people the power to shock you as well. Let’s say you vowed to jog four miles that day. By pairing Pavlok with a GPS tracker in your phone or a step counter, your selected Facebook friend or buddy will be able to see if you made good on your promise. If not, then they’ll get to hit a button and zap you for being a lazy bum.

The creator of Pavlok, Maneesh Sethi, created the wearable and tested it on himself after first doing a bunch of research: apparently 40% of all human actions in a day are habits and not conscious decisions (according to Duke University). Sethi has claimed that he’s lost 30lbs from using Pavlok:

“I myself have lost 30lbs just doing this in the last few months, simply forcing myself to go and swipe the card at the gym… and my friend can monitor my swiping the card at the gym.”

The Pavlok is currently available to a group of Beta testers who have, according to Sethi, had positive results from using the wearable.

The Pavlok will most likely suffer from the same problem that most of us have with fitness trackers: we actually have to wear them. What happens if someone takes their Pavlok off or intentionally leaves it at home when they go out for a night of drinking? Ultimately, anything short of bolting this on someone’s hand won’t stop them from taking it off if they’re sick of being electrocuted, or if they feel like not having to worry about keeping to a fixed schedule.

Would you be interested in purchasing one of these bad boys? If so, keep an eye out for the kickstarter campaign that should be launched in September. Until then, just rub your feet on the carpet and touch a door handle every time you wake up late.

Source | Via