Needle

What it does in Road Mates

The needle sits in the middle when you start. Each compass answer moves it toward your current self or your future self. It is a running picture of which one is winning.

How it works

• Every answer nudges the needle a small amount, so no single day decides it.
• It is tied to the compass, so it only moves when you reflect honestly.
• You see it every time you open your road.

What the research found

Monitoring progress toward a goal is one of the best-supported self-regulation strategies. A meta-analysis of 138 randomized studies found interventions that increased monitoring raised goal attainment (d = 0.40), and that more frequent monitoring was what drove the effect.

The effect was larger when progress was physically recorded and when it was reported to someone else.

Limits

• Most studied goals were health behaviors such as activity, weight and diet.
• The group where progress was made public was small, with a wide margin of error.
• A needle that never moves would not help, so the questions must stay meaningful.