Helping You Develop a Simple Habit: The Gratitude App for Glass

grateful app glassware google glass

The Gratitude App for Google Glass is Glassware that aims to inspire greater positivity and success in the user’s life. Eathan Janney, the app’s creator, has created simple glassware that helps one achieve that higher sense of subjective well-being (or happiness) by nudging the user into recognizing the positive experiences in ones’s life.

Why is this something you should look to do? Although it is commonly thought that success leads to happiness, research into the science of happiness has produced evidence that it’s actually the other way around: happiness is actually the foundation for success.

The Gratitude App prompts the user to express statements of gratitude at regular intervals throughout the day, and records those statements to the user’s timeline. See how easy it is to use it by viewing the video below:

One of the best things about this glassware is what we hit on above: A user’s gratitude statement is recorded as a timeline card, so that the user can also access their statements at a later point. So if you’re having a frustrating day, you can swipe back in your timeline and pop open an audio message that you recorded previously.

Why The Glassware Was Created

Eathan Janney, the app’s creator, is a PhD candidate in Neuroscience at the City University of New York.

gratitude app recording screen“Spending day after day facing experiments that are riddled with obstacles and curveballs, it is easy to feel discouraged,” says Janney. “My wife purchased a couple of books for me on positive psychology, thinking they might help me adjust my general outlook. I’ve since developed a daily routine that includes frequently expressing gratitude.”

Within a few months, Janney noticed an increase in his productivity, and felt generally more optimistic. In fact, he successfully passed an important doctoral exam that he had previously failed. Was it a direct result because of frequently expressing gratitude? Who knows… but it most likely didn’t hurt.

gratitude app speak your messageAfter purchasing Google Glass, he began to explore the capacity of the new technology to fit into his daily life.

“Because of its ability to ask for your attention and easily record voice commands, I realized that Google Glass was the perfect medium to help me to remember to express gratitude,” says Janney, “and by creating an app for this activity, I can share it with others.”

Inspiration Behind The Glassware

Janney was inspired by books such as Authentic Happiness by Penn State University professor and pioneer of positive psychology Martin Seligman and The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor. Achor, who studied what makes people happy for 12 years at Harvard University, has also communicated his experiences through a popular TED talk on the subject.

It was Achor’s recommended routine that Janney worked into his daily life–a routine that included writing down three statements of gratitude in a journal each day.

Why Google Glass?

Wearable technologies such as Glass give users a better chance at regulating their behavior and developing healthy habits. With the Gratitude App, it helps remind the user to think of something for which they are grateful on a regular basis, thus increasing the likelihood that gratitude is truly part of their day.

“When I reply to the timeline cards with something I’m grateful for,” says Janney, “it often brings a smile to my face — even if I’m in the midst of a frustrating situation. It reminds me to relax and feel grateful that I have the skills to solve such challenging problems, and that even having the chance to tackle some of these problems is a privilege.”