Your hours are numbered – Emit style!
Tech Editor Krithika Balaji writes about Emit, a start-up by graduates from Imperial, who have designed a clock that counts down time as a way to stop people from procrastinating.
Be honest with me - how many times did you pull an all-nighter last year? How many times did you start an assignment at the last minute, this questionable decision justified by saying that “diamonds are made under pressure”? We are three weeks into college and some of us have already found that sticking to the promise of being up-to-date with all our work is harder to do than to vow. Urgency is what we best respond to, thanks to the ingrained ‘fight or flight’ response. When we look at our watch/smartphone, our perception of the amount of time we have can differ greatly from reality. Two MechEng graduates - Stephen Titus and Thushaan Rajaratnam - from our university have not only acknowledged this problem, but have created their solution - Emit.
What is it?
Emit is a new line of smartwatches that counts down the time to a certain event, instead of showing it as an absolute value, in the hopes that people would improve their perception of the value of time.
“Our mission is to help people accomplish their most important goals and dreams by proactively allocating appropriate amounts of time to each of them.”
Some people might argue that timers on smartphones can be used instead of this. While smartphones are undoubtedly useful for brief tasks, they are ultimately distracting when used for long periods of time. If you were to keep track of time through your phone, you would be subjected to the constant traffic of information through Whatsapp, Snapchat, Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. According to the founders of Emit, the best way to prioritize goals to have a “clear and focused mindset” is to keep plans and execution simple. This way, you “won’t let time fly away before it’s too late”. Emit succeeds in this by simply showing multiple countdowns programmed into it by the user without the distraction of apps.
Inspiration behind Emit
According to the founders, initially, they had joked about creating a “deathwatch” that would count down to your death. Later, after more serious consideration, they thought that playing with the psychology of scarcity could make users appreciate the “value and irreversibility” of time. They started work on building the watch this January.
Features
Emit has many different features that can help you make a day be more productive. They are:
Day/night cycle - this shows the countdown to the start and end of the day. You can switch effortlessly to see another countdown by tapping on the screen.
Multiple times - you can create multiple timers to take into account events like breaks, meetings, exercises, lectures, etc.
Phone sync - Automatic Bluetooth syncing of selected events on your phone with emit. This works with many calenders (for instance, google and microsoft) and is compatible with iOS and Android.
Specifications
So, before you buy the watch, what are the basic specifications you need to know? The color of the watch is black and weighs roughly sixty grams with a multi-touch screen.
Next Steps
Emit is going live on Kickstarter, the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects, on Monday the 22nd of October. The Kickstarter tiers are aggressively priced at $99, $119 and $139, depending on how early in the campaign you get them. Can this watch really end procrastination? Time will tell.
