Table 3.

Key recommendations for the design of just-in-time EM(M)Is for the reduction of acute stress.

1	Communicate a clear-cut and theory-driven definition of “stress” to participants at the beginning of the study in order to reach a shared understanding of the applied stress-related measures
2	Plan the number of days, prompts per day, and overall study duration carefully. Keep participant burden as low as possible
3	Allow participants to familiarize with the study protocol at home (e.g., provide a study manual, include exercise days)
4	Keep response durations in moments of stressful experiences as short as possible (e.g., choose few items, let participants answer while taking saliva samples)
5	Participants’ self-compiled study playlists should contain music pieces that they like a lot, perceive as relaxing, and like to listen to when feeling stressed

General recommendations on EMA/I protocol designs can be found in Shiffman et al. (2008), Mehl and Conner (2013), Steinhart et al. (2019), Balaskas et al. (2021). EMA, ecological momentary assessment; EMI, ecological momentary intervention; EMMI, ecological momentary music intervention.