The one fitness app that has hooked me for good

The one fitness app that has hooked me for goodThe one fitness app that has hooked me for goodCould there be a behavior more antithetical to human nature than exercise? Our caveman ancestors, if they could observe our workout habits today, would think weve lost our minds. We lift heavy objects into the air and return them to the exact spot where we picked them up. We buy ridiculous gadgetry to get in shape (Shake Weight anyone?). We elevate our heart rates as if were being chased by a hungry predator. And for what? notlage to escape danger, but to undo the negative consequences of our overindulgent and underactive modern lifestyles.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreAmericans spend $19 billion annually on gym memberships. Unfortunately, while many people join gyms, few use them for long. According to the Fitness Industry Association, about 44 percent of people who sign up for a gym membership quit after just six months.While disheartening, the figure is not surprising. Humans are hardwired tovalue short-term rewards over long-term benefits. We often choose to stay under warm bed covers rather than invest in the future benefits of working out.I know that dichotomy all too well. Ive struggled with working out for as long as I can remember. As an obese child, my mother dragged me to the gym to help me slim down. As a lethargic teenager, I joined the high school wrestling team in a desperate attempt to get in shape, but I never won a single match. As an adult, I tried to prioritize the gym as part of my regular routine countless times but failed at each attempt.Until I found Fitbod.Fitbodis a beautifully designed app that has helped me consistently hit the gym for over two years, and Im not the only one whos found the app helpful. Over three million people have downloaded Fitbod, and its consistently ranked among the top-grossing and top-rated apps in its Apple A pp Store category. While the app has been incredibly useful to me, I welches pleasantly surprised to learn that my book,Hooked, welches useful to the apps founders.Fitbod is the brainchild of Allen Chen, a fitness enthusiast, who despite lifting weights for over a decade still had a frequent problem. Id walk into the gym and every single day not know what to do, he told me. I wanted my phone to just tell me which muscles I needed to engage.In 2015, Chen says he readHookedand designed an initial prototype based on the four parts of the Hooked Model. He started with theinternal trigger, the actuator of the behavior, which he identified as the uncertainty of not knowing what to do in the gym.Once Chen had a working prototype, he shared it with his college friend, Jesse Venticinque, who was working as a designer at LinkedIn at the time. I readHookedwhen it made the rounds in the office, Venticinque told me. Seeing the potential to build healthy habits in peoples lives, the two joined fo rces and moved forward with the project.Together, Chen and Venticinque began refining their app to help users build a habit of using Fitbod in the gym.Heres their Hooked ModelAfter identifying the first step of their hook, the internal trigger of uncertainty, Chen and Venticinque needed to ensure Fitbods Action Phase would quickly solve the users psychological need by providing certainty about what they should do in the gym.I acutely remember the embarrassing feeling of standing around in the gym, not knowing what to do, and feeling I was probably in someones way. With Fitbod, simply opening the app provides quick relief.With one tap on the app, Fitbod creates my next workout, removing the discomfort of uncertainty by quickly telling me which exercises to do, in what order, how much weight to lift, how many repetitions to do, and even how long to rest between sets. I dont have to think about anything. I just have to do what Fitbod tells me to do. The simplicity of a single, next wor kout to do really helps the gym-goer quickly solve their psychological uncertainty, Venticinque told me.By generating the workout program on the fly, Fitbod overcomes some of the stumbling blocks associated with other fitness programs. For instance, whereas most of Fitbods competitors ask users to embark on a lengthy multi-week program, Fitbod requires no long-term commitments. Similarly, if users fall off track, they can easily get back on track because the app is always ready with their next best workout.Next, comes the Variable Reward Phase of Fitbods Hooked Model. Not only is there an element of surprise in discovering which exercises the app chooses for me (rewards of the hunt), but the app also brings out the intrinsically rewarding elements of exercise as well. Unlike other fitness apps that reward users with corny badges or points, which can become less motivating over time, the main reward when using Fitbod is the satisfaction of conquering the exercise itself. By giving us ers clear weight and repetition goals for each activity, Fitbod harnesses the search for mastery and competence endemic to rewards of the self. Theres variability in seeing if you can smash your personal best. And Fitbod helps by setting achievable, incremental goals with each exercise.Finally, Fitbod gets smarter with use, a characteristic of well-designed, habit-forming products. The Investment Phase of Fitbods Hooked Model occurs every time I log an exercise. By entering data, Im storing value in the service and ensuring it improves the more I use it. With my previous exercise information, the app tailors future sessions and recommendations. I can also invest more value in the app by tailoring my fitness goals, available equipment, and even how much time I have to workout- all factors the app uses to compute my next tailored workout.Fitbod isnt free. Users pay a monthly or annual subscription. But unlike gym memberships, which most people abandon despite continuing to pay dues, t he Fitbod founders tell me their app loses very few customers and is used on average nine times per month per user. Fitbodsapplication of the Hooked Model is clearly working. The founders tell me its user base and profits continue to grow.As someone who has always struggled with inconsistent exercising habits, Im proud to say that Ive formed an indispensable habit with Fitbod. Im happy to let the app do the thinking for me so I can focus on my workout. Instead of relying on an expensive personal coach or spending countless hours reading fitness books and logging exercises with clunky pen and paper, Ive finally built a helpful and healthy habit.This article first appeared on Nir Far.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people

How I Recovered from a Lowball Salary

How I Recovered from a Lowball SalaryHow I Recovered from a Lowball Salary The journalism industry isnt exactly known for having prestigious, high-paying jobs - Anna Wintour, Anderson Cooper, Ta-Nehisi Coates, etc., excluded, of course. Take my first foray into the field for example three weeks out of journalism school, I scored my first interview at a newspaper. The executive editor offered me the job before I left his office- for the astounding salary of $10 an hour . Id worked my way through college, and earned mora than that as a waitress. I politely but promptly turned down that offer and held out hope for the next one. It came in at a resounding $19,000 a year. I didnt do the math to find out what that worked out to be per hour. Journalists, in addition to being poorly paid, are notoriously bad at math. Instead, I turned down that job offer and hoped, much against my better judgment, for more money. I welches so disheartened by those first two offers that when a third came in, topping the brde one by $8,000, I took it without hesitation. And that set the tone for how I would approach my next job offer. I didnt do the research to know whether I was getting a fair salary . I didnt even check what my industrys pay standards were at the time. I simply asked myself, Is this more money than youre making now? The answer was yes, and I took my lower-than-I-should-have-accepted salary without negotiation. Id been at my second professional job (also at a newspaper) for a few days when I met my coworker-turned-close friend, Dan. Over a couple of beers and burgers at the local sports bar, we got to talking about my offer. I was so proud of myself. I went from making $27,000 a year at my last job to making $36,000 here, I bragged to him. But I could tell by his face that I should be hanging my head instead of puffing out my chest. Dan,- hired just 11 months earlier with a years less experience in the field than I had- had snagged a salary of $ 40,000 a year. And to add insult to my injury, hed negotiated three weeks vacation too. Initially, I was embarrassed. Then my emotions turned to frustration. Finally, I got focused. Starting with my next job offer, I stopped asking whether it was more than I was currently making- because of course, it should be- and started doing the work I needed to do to ensure I wouldnt be low-balled ever again. And heres how Long before I started writing for Glassdoor as a freelance writer, I knew about this resources amazing salary tool . You can type in your job title and location, and the tool will populate an average salary for your specific area, plus how it compares to the national average for that same job. My third professional job was as a magazine editor at a regional publication, and by using this simple tool, I discovered editors in my area were making an average of $47,000 a year. That gave me a base on which to judge my own offer. Now Glassdoor has Know Your Worth , a personal s alary estimator thatll let you know how much you should be earning in base pay, taking into consideration education, location, current company and experience.I spoke with contacts and coworkers until I found a connection between one of them and a former employee at the magazine. And after a quick introduction, that former employee was happy to dish on what hed earned when hed worked in the exact location I was going to fill. The magic number? It was $42,000. That may sound low, but that average salary Id uncovered included all editors, and this fleck was pretty low on the masthead. So now I knew I should accept nothing less than $42,000- and I could still negotiate for more. 3. I didnt accept the first offer. If Id followed my previous criteria for accepting job offers, Id have snatched up this one without hesitation. It was $38,000, which was more than the $36,000 Id been making at the newspaper. Old me would have celebrated my raise. But new me was mildly irritated. I knew I h ad been low-balled. I found the courage to counter offer . I asked for $42,000. I didnt name the previous employee, but I stressed to my future boss that I had information proving previous editors in that position had been paid more- and said I couldnt possibly accept less than what theyd earned. He came back with an offer of $40,000 with a $1,000 raise after six months and an extra weeks vacation . I said yes. Sadly, after I took that job, over drinks with my new managing editor, our salaries came up. I told her what I was offered, and she started crying at the table. I was making $6,000 more than the-second-to-top editor at the publication- after shed been there for five years, and earned more than one raise. She also hadnt researched. And she also hadnt negotiated. When it comes to salary, it sounds clich but knowledge really is power. Knowing industry standards , talking to former employees, and being willing to fight for what youre worth not only helps you earn more now, but it sets you up for financial success in the future.

6 Career Networking Tips for Millennials

6 Career Networking Tips for Millennials6 Career Networking Tips for MillennialsDoes the idea of networking sound forced and unnatural? Maybe youre thinking of it all wrong Networking doesnt have to be a transactional, tit-for-tat experience where you connect with people you wouldnt otherwise associate with for the sake of furthering your career. Instead, think of networking as being the process of forming a friendship where the major basis for your relationship is work-related (instead of a shared rolleal interest in movies or love of cocktails). As with any relationship, your network should consist of people you like and admire after all, who would want to do a favor for anyone who isnt a trusted connection? As with many things, networking may be different for millennials than it welches for previous generations. For one thing, they have the advantage of a vast number of social networking sites that can be used for networking available. But mora than that, millennials dont tend to network in structured events, but in a mora organic way, with lunches and Slack conversations with co-workers, or as an extension of social activities. Here are six strategies millennials can use to develop and maintain their network Network Anywhere and Everywhere Gone are the days of the all-important golf appointment and formal drinks gatherings structured around a professional affiliation. Attending more formal networking events isnt a bad thing (in fact, it can be hugely helpful)- but its by no means the only place where you can network. Once you think of it more as forming connections rather than networking, its easy to see that countless opportunities to build your network are available- you can talk about work and your career-related goals during your kids play dates, at the pick-up line for school, at church, during parties, when youre at a book reading or other cultural event, and during any kind of get-together. Try to Meet Lots of People When it comes to building a community, it helps to be social and a bit extroverted. (But if big groups and socializing arent your speed, try these networking tips for introverts.) The more people you know, the more likely you are to forge a connection with someone who might know of a job or a good person for you to meet. Look for opportunities to broaden your network- this can be as small as chitchatting on the elevator, introducing yourself to a speaker at a conference, or saying hello to that person you see every Saturday at yoga class. Connect Online After Meeting in Person There is no shortage of online social sites LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat- the list goes on and on. Dont be shy about connecting with people youve met in person on these social networks. Doing this will help you stay top of mind, far more than business cards or emails, which can easily get filed away and forgotten. Your tweets, LinkedIn posts, and other social media activity can make your relationship with connections feel closer and more intimate. Use your best judgment about where to connect socially- if you met at a networking-oriented event, LinkedIn and Twitter are good platforms to connect on. A more casual, drinks-oriented event might make the more friend-oriented platforms (Facebook, Instagram) feel more appropriate. When in doubt, you can ask either in person or over email if theyd like to connect on social media. One cautionary note Avoid connecting on every social site at once. That could feel overwhelming. Seek Out a Mentor While its good to know a lot of people, its also good to build deep, long-term relationships. A mentor can be a touchstone throughout your career, helping you to evaluate job offers, know when its the right time to leave a job, negotiate a raise, and generally help you with all sorts of career-related conundrums. Make Friends at Work Most likely, you wont be at your current job forever- and neither will your co-workers Build strong relationships with colleagues if youre lucky, youll discover that you have a lot more than where you work in common. These relationships will make your time at work more pleasant, and may also lead to future job-related opportunities in the future, too. So make an effort to go to lunches, happy hours, and show up for birthday celebrations. Always Remember to Lend a Hand Yourself The old view of networking was that relationships were of a you scratch my back, and Ill scratch yours variety. That seems old-fashioned now networking doesnt have to be so tit-for-tat. Still, if you see an opportunity to recommend someone in your network for a job, informational interview, and other career-related opportunities, definitely do so. And dont forget, if you make a connection that results in a job offer, youll likely have two grateful connections Both the person you referred for a job and the person who hired that candidate will be grateful.