🎬 TL;DR: WATCH THE VIDEO (click above) for the full life hack. Only takes 2 minutes at 2x speed. ⏩
Want to do research on yourself?
Today’s post is a break from our regularly scheduled programming for an idea on how to do research—not on users, but on yourself!
My husband and I send ourselves a weekly survey. Why do we do this? We’ve realized that our future selves will really appreciate remembering these days with our young child. We both have such poor memory that it’s unlikely we’ll remember our daily life with her when we’re older. This life hack is like a simple “diary study” you may give your users—but for yourself.
The image below is from the week our daughter learned to make me coffee. It definitely made the survey. 👇
Don’t have a kid? Try these:
Sentimental: Dating someone new and getting serious? Record those feelings. Wouldn’t it be fun to read it out at your wedding?
Mood: Track your mood or stress levels daily and correlate this to your behaviors (tons of apps for this, but simple can be better).
Memory: Keep an overall life record of what happened to you.
Focus: What’s the one thing you want to do today? At the end of the day, mark if you got it done.
Gratitude practice: We know doing this boosts mood, but the survey could also remind you to remember the good things.
Idea tracker: Sometimes ideas are fleeting. Hold on to those lightbulb moments!
Try to keep the survey short or you won’t do it every week—and that’s the point.
Watch the video to see exactly what the survey looks like and how to do it yourself.
How to set up the survey
Sign in to Zapier:
Go to zapier.com and log in to your account. If you don’t have one, create an account.
Create a new Zap:
Click on the "Create Zap" button.
Set trigger: “Scheduled Weekly Event”
In the "Trigger" section, search for "Schedule by Zapier" and select it.
Under "Choose Trigger Event," select "Every Week".
Configure the day of the week and time you want the email to be sent.
Set action: “Send Email”:
In the "Action" section, search for "Email by Zapier" and select it.
Under "Choose Action Event," select "Send Outbound Email".
Configure email settings:
To: Enter your own email address -- and if you want -- your spouse’s/partner’s!
Subject: Enter your desired email subject, e.g., "Do this survey now"
Body: Include the link to your Google form.
Test and activate:
Zapier will prompt you to test the action. Run the test to ensure the email works.
Once the test is successful, click "Turn on Zap".
If you’re doing qualitative or quantitative research on users, give me a shout. Our team of behavioral scientists would love to work with you on it.
Have a friend who would enjoy these teardowns? Click the button below to refer them (& earn some great rewards).👇
📧 Questions about product adoption? Shoot me an email: kristen@irrationallabs.com.
Want to increase conversion, retention, engagement? Reach out to Irrational Labs.
We design products that change behavior, using behavioral science. Check out our case studies to see it in action.
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