172 people were told of a fundraiser called Sheila who needed to sell 100 candy bars for her sports team and told she had to sell either 1 or 21 more bars to meet her quota. They were then asked how likely they were to buy a candy from her.

Those in the almost-complete task state were far more likely to help than when there were many left.

Visualize to motivate.

‍Showing quantifiable task progress  with a visual and numerical indicator will increase completion speed (Cheema & Bagchi, 2011).  

How can you heighten desire to close in on the reward?

Note that effort levels will fall after the current reward has been attained, so reframe progress around the next goal.

Be ahead of the curve. 

‍Endow Progress and put more weight on task completion at the start than when close to the goal. 

Place easier tasks at start and middle, saving harder or bigger ones for just before reward.

Reframe task size.

‍Motivation to complete a task is directly proportionate to its size. So, for viewers new to Breaking Bad, instead of Netflix initially highlighting all 5 seasons, reframe the task as a single season with a sense of completion.

Once season 1 is watched, reframe season 2 as a natural extension of 1 but distinct from 3-5.

47 subjects were given around 20 small, manual tasks to complete, one at a time. Experimenters randomly interrupted completion of half of these tasks. After, subjects were asked to recall as many tasks as possible.

There was a 90% higher recall of incomplete and interrupted tasks than those completed.

Make important task completion frictionless. If customers leave your site without finishing their order, make it effortlessly easy to get that completion feeling, such as allowing for completion with a single click, tap or swipe. 

Focus on completion’s emotional release. Providing reward incentives for task completion actually demotivates consumers. Instead, remind them not just of the product they’ve not yet bought, but of the feelings that this ‘purchase task’ will unlock. 

Make known campaigns incomplete and interactive. Greater familiarity with an advert increases consumer ability to complete an interrupted ad message. Active participation also boosts ad memory (Heller, 1956). So if your popular campaign’s reaching its end, consider a special second follow-up version that allows for active participation in completing the ad message. 

121 students were shown one of 3 adverts for watch brand Swatch. Either a control with no sales event, a limited-time sale (6 days) or one limited in quantity available (100) triggering competition. They were then asked how likely they’d be to buy the watch.

Those in the competition condition were more likely to buy than those under time pressure.

A little competition can be fun.

‍We are naturally competitive; where there are numbers, there are games. And though it shouldn't be the only driver of behavior change, subtle uses with measurable goals, leaderboards and appropriate Rewards can provide benefit. What positive behaviors do you want to encourage? Tell the Story of why the competition exists to help motivate further. Ensure that the competition also aligns with others' own aspirations.

Allow everyone to ‘succeed’, regardless of ability.

Bad competition creates clear winners and losers, which can demotivate the latter and reduce behavior change. Good competition includes ways to celebrate all efforts to reach a goal. Be sensitive to our desire to compare, e.g. only show individuals their relative place in a leaderboard.

Make competition team-based.

‍Too much competition can reduce internal motivation. However competing as broader teams can prevent this. Collaboration is a powerful tool to use with competition to foster new collective norms around the intended behavior.

11,912 members of a gym were surveyed over 442 days for their attendance.

Results showed that, next to the baseline, the probability of people going to the gym increased at the beginning of the week, month and semester, showing our higher in-built level of motivation at the start of new time periods.

Motivate around fresh start moments. 

How can you help people achieve their dreams by communicating around multiple time chunks, such as the start of the week, month or year, or even personal events like birthdays, graduations or job changes? 

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Target one-shots.

‍Fresh starts are particularly good at helping people make one-off decisions that perhaps they'd been delaying, such as getting that flu jab. What single task can you help people do around new time periods?

Use to overcome failures.

‍There are countless fresh start opportunities to help people who have let good habits slip. Frame it as a "new you", which gives an opportunity to separate themselves from past failures. Get them started by being empathic and having them Commit to a Tiny Habit.