2015.5 The Photo Coaching Release

In this update, we’ve upgraded the coaching chat feature so that you can share photos with your coach. You can also now check in to the goal you’re being coached on right from the chat.

When we first decided to add photos to the coaching chats we were thinking of diet coaches. It’s so tedious to log your food, wouldn’t it be better to just share a photo of your food to your coach?

But then I started using the photos with my productivity coach. Instead of telling him about my day, I just snapped a photo of my todo list.

When I first hired a coach for productivity, I told him that I was completely non-responsive to external accountability. I was wrong.

We had run an experiment with personality quizzes recently. Gretchen Rubin, a NYT best selling author on happiness and habits, had categorized people into four categories based on how they react to internal and external expectations.

Roughly the categories were as follows:

Upholders: annoying do-gooders (my words) who react well to any expectations set by other people and to expectations they set for themselves. Their lives just seem so easy. I mean, at least they get stuff done.

Obligers: very responsive to external expectations, i.e. accountability. Not responsive to internal expectations, i.e. they probably don’t make their beds.

Questioners: non-responsive to any expectations unless they know and believe in the underlying reasons. Subject to paralysis by analysis. I’m a questioner.

Rebels: know what people think they should do, think they should try something else instead.

Taking it back to accountability, more than half of people who hired a coach turned out to be obligers. Our coaches were amazing accountability partners. The obligers used their coaches as motivational hacks that that created external accountability for an internal goals.

Now, I thought that I was immune to this. But as soon as I started sending photos to my coach, I realized I was trying to impress him. And I’d work extra hard (not that I was lazy) to get even more done so that I could have a better picture to share.

All that’s just to say, have fun sending pictures to your coach.

In service,

Tony & Erin, Alicia, Herzog, Terrie