Gamify Your Life and Achieve Your Goals
The best way to achieve big goals is to reward yourself for progress each step of the way.
Gamification is turning a task into a game to motivate yourself to do it. The beauty of gamification is that the difficulty of a task (or how dreary it may seem) can be offset if you feel rewarded for completing it.
Gamification works because it creates a feeling of being rewarded each time we complete a task — however small it may be. It makes our progress feel tangible, and this spurs us to keep pushing.
Whether you realize it or not, you’re probably already using some form of gamification in your life.
Let’s take a closer look at how gamification works and how you can use it to boost productivity, set and accomplish big goals, and find the success that has been eluding you.
1. Understand How Gamification Works
Gamification isn’t just a gimmick; it works because it triggers powerful emotions:
Game Mechanics in Real Life: Using game mechanics in non-game contexts makes tasks more fun and engaging. Imagine being transported to another world through an online video game, immersed in a storyline and conquering amazing challenges.
Incremental Rewards: You’re rewarded incrementally as you build skills and achieve small, steady wins. This feeling of “winning” provides constant gratification and enjoyment.
Dopamine Boost: Enjoyable experiences release dopamine, a pleasure-producing chemical that keeps us motivated and focused.
At its core, gamification is a motivational technique designed to:
Help people engage
Keep them motivated
Ensure they stay on task
It achieves this by providing rewards and incentives, mimicking the experience of interacting with a computer or online game.
2. Know the Elements of Gamification
Humans have evolved to be stimulated by problem-solving and learning, and gameplay is great at doing this, in part by doling out small rewards for incremental progress. This keeps our brains engaged and keeps us on our quests. Tom Chatfield, an author and tech philosopher who has studied gamification and is an avid gamer himself, breaks gamification down into a few key components:
Experience Bars: These measure our incremental progress and help us visualize how far we’ve come and how far we have to go.
Multiple Long- and Short-Term Goals: These are our main quests and side quests, broken down into smaller tasks.
Rewards for Effort: Every bit of effort exerted in a game is rewarded through credit, such as gold, loot, and experience.
Rapid, Frequent, and Clear Feedback: This clearly links actions to consequences, making learning easier and faster.
The Element of Uncertainty: This is the neurological gold mine: we keep going because we want to find out what’s next.
Windows of Enhanced Attention: Gameplay helps boost memory and confidence. Game players are more willing to take risks and pursue difficult tasks.
Other People: Gameplay gives us a chance to connect with multiple players online.
3. Create Your Own Gamification System
There are simple, low-tech ways to gamify your life and work to boost motivation and productivity.
Define Your Goals: Make them specific so you know when each one is achieved.
Assign Points: Attach points to each goal based on its importance or difficulty. For example, running a marathon or writing a book might be worth 500 points.
Break Down Goals into Missions: Divide larger goals into smaller, manageable “missions.” Work on these daily or weekly. For example, run three to five times per week, gradually increasing mileage, with each run worth 20 points.
Track Progress: Write down your daily accomplishments. Compare your progress over time.
Reward Yourself: Set rewards for reaching a certain number of points. Examples: 200 points: Dinner out ; 300 points: Trip to your favorite store ; 500 points: Day at the spa.
4. Boost Productivity Through “Mini-Games”
Use gamification to increase productivity by creating “mini-games” for daily tasks:
Assign Points: 1 point for each dish washed. 5 points for each report page completed or email sent.
Time Challenges: Time yourself in the grocery store to beat your old record. See how quickly you can fold and put away a load of laundry.
By tracking these, you incentivize faster completion and increase productivity.
Checklists as Mini-Games: Ticking off checklist items releases dopamine, like achieving a game objective. Give yourself a small reward after each item checked to reinforce motivation.
Small Rewards: Come up with a list of small rewards: Snack you enjoy ; 15-minute break ; Watching a favorite show or YouTube channel. Roll dice when you complete a task. Whatever number you roll, give yourself the corresponding reward.
5. Use Gamification Apps and Tools
One of the most popular ways to use gamification is through online tools and apps designed to help you improve your life.
For a comprehensive and customizable experience, check out the “Gamify Your Life” Notion Template. This tool transforms your self-improvement journey into an engaging RPG, allowing you to track goals, habits, and daily activities while earning rewards. Customize your adventure and make progress fun and motivating. Start your adventure today!
“Gamify Your Life” is a Notion Template that reimagines life’s journey as an immersive role-playing game. Focusing on leveraging gamification to making self-improvement and the achievement of life goals not just achievable but fun.
Features
Player Identity: Evaluate and improve your life performance with insightful metrics.
Activity Log: Review your daily actions, a unique diary style.
Settings: Say goodbye to the complexity of Notion databases.
Daily Journal & Mood Energy Tracker
Premium Habit Tracker: “Growth” your good habits, “Resist” your bad habits.
Habit objective tracking: Track your Improvement Goals
Project Management: Complete projects and tasks
Brain Dump: Capture your thoughts anytime, anywhere.
Reward System: Spend coins in the Shop, Hotel & Black Market.
Vision Board: Define your character’s vision and ideal life.
6. Gamifying the Workplace
In today’s competitive environment, companies must innovate and stay relevant. This requires motivated and focused employees.
Engagement Crisis: Over 70% of business transformations fail due to lack of engagement. Gamification can be a solution by increasing employee engagement and motivation.
Making Work Fun: Turn work projects into game levels. Hitting milestones is like leveling up in a game.
Earning Badges: Reward employees with badges for tasks accomplished. Track progress to keep employees invested.
Role-Playing Games: Use RPGs like the “Gamify Your Life” Notion Template to set recurring and one-off tasks. Build good habits and reward employees with gold, new skills, and in-game abilities.
By making work enjoyable and breaking down tasks into manageable levels, gamification can boost productivity and keep employees engaged.
7. Gamification to Help You Learn
Gamification enhances learning by creating engaging and motivating experiences.
Active Involvement: Makes learning more informative and fun. Encourages active participation, aiding long-term memory retention.
Interactive Elements: Promotes immersion, making learners feel more integrated into the process.
Spurring Innovation: Creates unique ways to invest in performance and stay motivated. Harnesses psychology to improve focus and achieve goals.
Embrace self-improvement through gamification with the “Gamify Your Life” Notion Template. Turn goals into quests, habits into achievements, and progress into a rewarding game. Start your engaging adventure toward success!
