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Rebuilding the Motivational Box (Fixing My Mistakes)

· 2 min read

I built a "Motivational Box" a few years ago to help improve my habits and stay consistent with things like exercise and productivity. But when I actually tried to use it, it didn’t work as expected. I could press buttons to log tasks, but I had no clear way to see what I had completed over time. For example, I couldn’t easily answer simple questions like: What did I do last week? Was I consistent? Even though I had a heatmap, it wasn’t enough to properly track or reflect on my progress. On top of that, I never fully committed to using the box consistently. This time, I’m rebuilding it properly — with the goal of making something I will actually use.

👉 Original project: [Link]

❌ What Went Wrong Last Time​

  • I didn’t actually use it after building it, it had way to many goals
  • I might pick a tasks and wanted to change it which is difficult to do with current design

🎯 Goal for This Version​

For this rebuild, I want to:

  • Make it actually useful
  • Improve the interaction (buttons / feedback / display)
  • Redesign hardware/enclosure
  • I want to take inspiration from this Habbit tracker I saw on [Reddit]

Motivational Box rebuild

🔧 What I Tried Today​

  • Looked through my old design
  • Identified weak points
  • Started planning changes

I used codex to help me recreate the website

🧠 Key Realisation​

Making a more visual whole year physcial tracker along with the website will make it into something more meaningfull to track everything

🚧 Current Plan​

  • Version 2 ideas:
    • Design a new PCB
    • Design a new enclosure with addressable LEDs
    • Host the site on the Pico itself and able to store data on Github incase Pico stops working

▶️ Next Steps​

  • Prototype updated version