Gamification to improve myself

Question

I'm currently working out a way to gamify my daily work / life. I want to reward myself via a points system, assigning points to tasks I should do but tend to neglect.

These are things like paying invoice in a timely manner and answering important emails but also things I want to do, but never get around to, like working out from time to time.

As I'm the only "judge" I also work on way to prevent that I game the system, but this isn't a real problem for me because I tend to be objective and don't think I'll cheat myself.

Also, I don't want to tie the system to any specific task-management application (like EpicWin for iPhone)

Have you tried something like this?

Did it work out?

Any input?

Follow-Up:
Thanks everyone for their answers! I hadn't time to really work out a good system for me so far. So far I use a software (producteev) to manage tasks from everywhere and decide on point value on task creation. I also have daily tasks of calculating daily score and all. Points add to a score value that actually results in a budget for stuff I can buy for myself. per 100 points I can spend 1€. This way t improves my motivation while also limiting my spend-all-my-money-instead-of-saving-it personality.

Follow-Up 2: Here's a great talk by Jonathan Guerrera on the topic!

Answer 1

I have come up with a game system for helping me complete chores, errands, etc.

Every chore/errand is a 'task'. Tasks are rated 1-3 in four categories: Monetary Cost, Time to Complete, Difficulty and Benefit for Completion. Rate 1 if 'easy', 2 if 'medium' and 3 if 'hard' or 'very hard'.

Then, each task is rated 'Bronze', 'Silver', 'Gold' or 'Platinum' depending on the priority of completing the Task.

I use a spreadsheet to keep track of my Tasks. The spreadsheet also calculates the following equation:

• Find the Average of the values for Cost, Time, Difficulty & Benefit
• Divide by 3
• Add +0 if 'Bronze', +1 if 'Silver', +2 if 'Gold' or +4 if 'Platinum' to the final score

This final score is considered 'Points Earned'. As you complete various Tasks, you'll accumulate more points.

How you decide to spend those points is up to you. For me, I considered each point worth 1 hour of video game playing (as that is something I find entertaining).

In conclusion, it is a system that rewards you for completing priority Tasks (and not just collecting points by achieving a large number of small Tasks). You will earn 1 point for three 'easy' tasks, one 'easy' and one 'medium' task or one 'hard' task.

The "carrot at the end of the stick" offered is something you should enjoy and want to work hard at achieving.

Answer 2

So there are resources like http://lifehacker.com/5902598/superbetter-is-a-game-that-rewards-you-for-healthy-living-and-working-towards-your-goals

But I gamify in a very simply way… I have this -

The graph shows the size of my todo list, it's updated by a cron script every half hour and it's publicly viewable. Tasks that have been in the inbox (I use the same inbox for incoming mail and for tasks) for more than a week are the red line, more than three days the purple and more than 24 hours the green (the blue is the 'current' state and includes all the tasks triggered by calendar actions and emails to reply to… The game is to make the graph smaller - it's very simple but it's remarkably effective for me.

Following some comments for method - I use a modified version of getmail http://pyropus.ca/software/getmail/ to generate files like

34 2012-01-21 1327152611 5 16 10
32 2012-01-21 1327154411 5 14 9
32 2012-01-21 1327156209 5 14 9
34 2012-01-21 1327158012 5 14 9
34 2012-01-21 1327159808 5 15 9
34 2012-01-21 1327161611 5 15 9
34 2012-01-21 1327163406 5 15 9
33 2012-01-21 1327165211 5 13 9
34 2012-01-21 1327167011 5 13 9
31 2012-01-21 1327168810 4 12 8

(left to right this is, current size of inbox, date, seconds since epoch, emails older than 7 days, emails older than 24 hours, and emails older than 3 days. I then put it though a matlab script (although I'd like it to be an R script) as follows…

I then use this Matlab code:

load ~/emailAnalysis/results.txt
results=results(size(results,1)-400:size(results,1),:)
temp = results(:,3)-1238370000;
h=plot(temp,smooth(results(:,1)),':b')
set(h,'LineWidth',1)
ylim([0 80])
xlim([max(temp)-(86400*7),max(temp)-1])
set(gca,'XGrid','on')
ylabel('Emails')
hold on
i=plot(temp,smooth(results(:,4)),'r')
j=plot(temp,smooth(results(:,5)),'-g')
k=plot(temp,smooth(results(:,6)),'m')
xlim([max(temp)-(86400*7),max(temp)-1])
set(gca,'XTick',[1:86400:(86400*max(temp))+1])
set(gca,'XTickLabel',['Mon';'Tue';'Wed';'Thu';'Fri';'Sat';'Sun'])
set(j,'LineWidth',2)
set(h,'LineWidth',1)
set(i,'LineWidth',2)
set(k,'LineWidth',2)
xlabel('Time')
title('Size of inbox over time (seven days)')
print -r3000 -djpeg /XXXX/inbox7day.jpeg
hold off

to generate the graphs - both matlab and getmail code run as a cron job every half out on my webserver.

EDIT AGAIN - for interest, there is also the 'inbox-zero' version for incoming emails...

Answer 3

Oh just thought of something unrelated to previous answer

I'd like to be able to get up early, but I don't really have anyone to be accountable to for this. So I advertised on gumtree (I think craiglist is the equivelent in the US) for someone who was also competitive and wants to wake up early. The rules we have are this.

We each must email each other before 7.10am in the morning, every day except Sunday. If one of us is late, or misses an email due sleeping in, they get a 'late point'. At the end of the month, the person with the most late points gives £10 to a charity choosen by the other, and the scores are reset. We've been doing this for about eight months and it's been a really good way of setting up competition… at some point when I need a project to learn the twitter api I'll build the funcationality into a twitterbot...

EDIT - for an update - this has evolved into also sending over the 'must do' list everyday - quite good for personal accountability.

EDIT - again, following another answer I gave elsewhere, I've dropped this approach and no longer attempt to get up any earlier than natural (unless I have a genuine commitment), will let you know how this goes in another post.

Answer 4

Pomodorium - a Pomodoro technique based RPG-game.

Pomodorium is an attempted gamification of the Pomodoro technique.

The idea of Pomodorium is to use rules of role-playing game in the Pomodoro technique.

It's a Pomodoro technique timer with a game. For every completed pomodori you get 'gold' and there is game character - you buy him/her armors/weapons for this gold. There is a map you can travel through and fight monsters and level-up.

More detailed information how to play could be found in Pomodoro technique RPG style.

Answer 5

Check out chorewars.com - you can modify the 'chores' to be your own tasks - and then you progress through the stages / game.

Note - I have no affiliation with chorewars - I just like it.

Answer 6

There was a similar thread on Ask Metafilter a while back. This answer in particular had some good links.

The Habit Judo project no longer seems operational, but it does have an interesting approach. The random rewards element makes it particularly interesting.

Answer 7

I have also been looking for something to spice up work, and make me feel challeged and make all completing tasks more fun. I find giving my self rewards and punishments for completing or not completing my goals helps motivate me.

I originally tried superbetter but did not enjoy the UI. I have used the trello platform for a while now at work. Its not bad but there is no gamification.

I recently found redcritter which is like trello but gamified.

Both Platforms are great, but feel they are slightly complicated and I am looking for a more basic game like platform.

Answer 8

I use RescueTime to keep track of my time spent on my PC. It also keeps track of my time away from the PC and lets me enter a category when I get back to my PC.

It lets me set categories for the apps I use and sites I visit, with a level of productivity for each category.

It compares my "productivity" to all their users. And has real time reporting.

Only downside is the $5/month :)

Answer 9

I suspect that putting too much effort in gamifying your daily work would be a waste. I strongly recommend you try the Pomodoro Technique, which is game-like, simple, fun, and personally I find it even a bit addictive.

Take an hour to read the free eBook, it's only 30 pages long.

If you don't have a kitchen timer, use this app, or one of the many other Pomodoro-softwares.