After using my concept for awhile, I realized that is really only made sense for when I was in a bad mood. I felt the need to vent, as well as make a list of what I needed to do if I was feeling stressed or overwhelmed. I decided to make another Brain Break for when I am in a good mood. This Brain Break again asks what is on your mind, but then it asks you to list three good things that are contributing to your mood. I think that this was a good addition to the bad mood brain break because it allows you to look back on the things that put you in a good mood, and hopefully remember and be able to replicate those things in the future.
Before I made changes, I primarily used my Brain Break Journal when I was feeling stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed. The venting section was really good for me, as once I wrote down everything that was going on in my head I felt a lot more clarity. Writing down three things to improve my mood was also extremely helpful because it gave me a non overwhelming to-do list that I knew would make me feel more at ease.
Before I made this journal, I knew that writing stuff down helpful me but I never had an organized outlet to do so. I also knew that making a list of things I should get done usually helps me, but again I didn’t have a formal way of doing this. My brain break journal totally changed the way I deal with stress and anxiety. Usually, I just kind of let the thoughts sit in my head which causes me even more stress and leads me to being a lot less productive. After developing a formal way to express my stress relieving techniques, I can say that I have been a lot more productive and have found that easing my anxiety is a lot easier and quicker. The fact that such a simple design can make such a big difference is definitely a big take away for me.
The next place I might take this idea is beyond just good an bad feelings. I might try to make a brain break for a bunch of different emotions. I would still keep the prompts very simple and straightforward, but I would tailor them to specific moods and what prompts would be the most helpful for such moods. I might also make an end of the day Brain Break, to fill out at the end of a day after taking one or two Brain Breaks to evaluate how you are doing and if what you did earlier in the day improved your mood or not.
To add a wow factor, I might make the Brain Break journal into an app. The app could send you notifications throughout the day to take a Brain Break, and whatever mood you pick that you are in there would be different prompts to fill out. You could also just go into the app whenever you want and complete a Brain Break, which would be especially helpful when you want to relieve some stress. I think that this journal being in the form of an app would make it more usable and would encourage people to use it a lot more.
My overall experience using the design process went a lot differently than I thought. Usually when I don’t use this process, I end up designing the first good idea that comes to my head. A lot of the time, once I end up trying to execute this idea it does not turn out as good as I envisioned. Using the design processed forced me to take things one step at a time, and not rush into a final decision of what I was going to make right away. The Brain Break journal is not at all what I thought I was going to make when I started this process, but I am really happy with the way it turned out and I think that is due to using all the steps in the design process.
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