Give this app your embarrassing photos and it blackmails you into getting things done

Much like GymPact, which lets users put cash on the line to encourage themselves to exercise, Aherk! is “goal-oriented self-blackmail.” Yes, for all you procrastinators out there, if you really want to get things done you know it takes motivation — and what’s better motivation than the threat of leaking embarrassing photos on Facebook?

To use the service, first you must define a goal you want to achieve and set a deadline. Then, “put your ass on the line” by uploading a compromising photo that will be posted to Facebook in case you fail to achieve your goal. Lastly, your friends decide: After your deadline expires, Facebook friends will vote and tell us if you achieved your goal or not.

Clearly there’s room for error here, and I know from experience that some of my friends would likely say I didn’t achieve my goal just to get the photo to leak. That said, if you don’t have terrible friends, the site is definitely worth checking out and is already active while still in beta, with 135 goals in its database.

From the creators:

Outside our personal lives, we’re always on the edge, keeping productive, getting things done, because if we don’t, we know we can face immediate bad consequences. One may lose his job, his profit margins may shrink, he may have to attend 9th grade all over again. On the other hand, we keep procrastinating our personal goals since we think that nothing too bad will happen on the short run. We can always have one more sleep in, one more ice cream, spend a few more dollars than we should, etc.

And being so, we never achieve the goals that are most important to us. By keeping busy, we fail to accomplish what really matters to us.

But luckily for you, you found Aherk! With this service you’ll be able to put the same kind of pressure on you and effectively create habits, change what you don’t like about yourself or strengthen the traits you enjoy. Aherk! was also idealized with a gaming and community mentality, so it’s fun to use. No boring graphics and calculations, extensive how-tos or cheesy “you’re awesome, go get’em!” texts. It’s just a knife on your neck that will keep you on your toes while your friends are watching.

Overall it’s a fun, yet promising way for users to push each other into being more productive. It’s interesting to see that punishments beat out positive rewards when it comes to achieving tough personal goals. Are we all more driven by the risk of something bad happening?

➤ Aherk!