Exist

Weekly links 105: Mood

Cloudy days make us melancholy — which helps us think more clearly

brainpickings.org

Humans are biologically predisposed to avoid sadness, and they respond to sad moods by seeking opportunities for mood repair and vigilantly protecting themselves against whatever might be making them sad. In contrast, happiness sends a signal that everything is fine, the environment doesn’t pose an imminent threat, and there’s no need to think deeply and carefully.

This ties in with a Lifehacker article showing that you're often better at creative tasks like brainstorming when you're grumpy.

To fix your procrastination, work on your mood

wsj.com

Often, procrastinators attempt to avoid the anxiety or worry aroused by a tough task with activities aimed at repairing their mood, such as checking Facebook or taking a nap. But the pattern, which researchers call "giving in to feel good," makes procrastinators feel worse later.

Spend a lot of time on your phone? You might be depressed

time.com

“We found that the more time people spend on their phones, the more likely they are to be more depressed,” says David Mohr. The researchers also found that spending lots of time at home was linked to depression—and that phone data like this could predict with 87% accuracy whether someone had symptoms of depression.

What's the happiest day of the week?

exist.io

We look at some global statistics we've found within Exist's own mood tracking functionality, finding that mood peaks around the end of the week across the world — although some countries have their own unique happiest and grumpiest days. We also look at other factors that correlate with mood ratings. For example:

Our US users also stand out in a couple of other ways: they’re more likely to tweet when they’re happy, whereas the rest of our users (including Josh and myself) tend to be in a worse mood if we’re tweeting a lot.

doppel

Hardware, pre-order for £99

Doppel is a wearable that pulses rhythmically on your wrist. The idea seems to be that a fast pulse keeps you alert, while a slower bpm can help you to relax. It also tracks your heart rate so it can take this into account.

Moodnotes

iOS and Apple Watch, $5.99

A recent collaboration between clinical psychologists and the developers who built Monument Valley, this app gets you to rate your mood by picking a representative face, and asks questions designed to draw out the meaning behind your mood.

Moodscope

Web, free

This app takes the unique approach of asking you to shuffle "mood cards" to determine your rating each day, rather than just filling in the same form which can lead to survey fatigue. It's also based on the idea of sharing your mood results with close friends, to keep you accountable.

MoodPanda

Android, iOS and web, free

MoodPanda is another mood-tracking app based on the idea of a supportive community. It does the usual visualisations and journalling, but makes these posts public by default, allowing random internet people to write things like "*Hugs*" on your posts when you're feeling down.

Special mention: Exist

Of course, if you're interested in tracking your mood we'd love for you to try Exist, where you can track your mood via email or our Android and iOS apps. Our difference is that by also tracking data about you from other sources, such as steps, sleep, and productivity, we can show you correlations between habits and you can gain a fuller understanding of what other things in your life can affect your mood.