Making Real Life a Game | does gamifying life work for productivity?

One thing that’s bugged me is the inspiration to be more productive, such as working on this blog, or learning a language. I’ve always found it easier to just sit at home after a hard day at work and just sit and watch YouTube to get that easy gratification fix. But I’ve been recently trying to change my lifestyle and the best way I’ve found is to turn your life into a game.

Working to a schedule is hard, it’s easy to look at it and just say “Nah” and do something else. I’ve been struggling to build those good habits, whether it be trying through a journal, planner or finding motivation on forums. 

Habitica is one of the most visually interesting of the bunch

I downloaded this app called LifeUp Pro and I found, it actually worked? Now there’s a tonne of these on the mobile stores, all similar with each one trying to achieve the same goal. But this one clicked with me thanks to its flexibility and customisation options I felt were lacking in others. Now this isn’t a review of the app itself, but this interesting blend between life habits and building that into the structure of a game. 

Rewards are available too

These goals you create for yourself work in a similar way to ‘quests’ found in RPG games. You have a objective to complete, a goal to work towards. These may be essential tasks, something you’ve scheduled into your daily life with failure states. Completing them earn XP which can be gained towards your lifestyle stats. It’s easy to see where you need XP, for example; I’ve not been the most social this week! 

Then there’s the customisation aspect of the app. Building goals, sub-goals, goals with specific dates and times which earn achievements that link into getting rewards which build your lifestyle stats. It all links together, and helps build a routine so you don’t even need to check the app to know what needs to be done.

 At the end of the day, these XP rewards and skills are artificial reminders, there’s nothing tangible about levelling your creativity skill to level 9. However, you need to immerse yourself in the experience to see the real benefits, almost role playing chores into potential rewards. If I just clean the living room, I may have enough XP to convert into money for a chocolate bar tomorrow…

Obviously this isn’t not for everyone, my partner quickly gave up after she failed a couple of days which instantly discouraged her. But personally I’ve seen a major benefit to how I approach tasks, seeing them as an opportunity, as apposed to a checklist and you do some minor parallel with how games structure their goals and rewards.

But for getting yourself motivated, this maybe something that might be of value?