Playing with your productivity

Bored at work? Staying focused at work in a tech-driven world isn’t easy, but gamification can help you start getting things done while playing.

Staying focused at work in a tech-driven world isn’t that easy.

It’s easy to feel uninspired or bored at some point during the day, and technology sometimes can have a very distracting effect.

Have you ever thought about playing games to improve your productivity?

“Gamification of work” can help you achieve more than you usually would by turning regular tasks into games.

Enterprise gamification has a significant role to play in engaging employees and driving behavioral change to accelerate business. 

It’s already been proven to be effective in increasing workplace productivity, making employees’ lives easier and the workday more exciting.

The idea is simple: if you turn your life into a game, with digital rewards for real life achievements, you’ll be more motivated to do something.

This mechanism is a quick way to exploit the brain’s natural mechanism for gratification using specific techniques designed by experts to improve your productivity.

Gamification uses game mechanics in a non-game context to reward you for completing tasks.

It’s like the games you probably played in your head as a kid where you’d task yourself with finishing something.

An app that can help you be more productive while playing:

HabitRPG: If you are looking for an all-around productivity tool that rewards you, this is the app for you. This is a to-do app that doesn’t hide the fact that it’s designed to help you keep track of everything on your agenda. When you check off a task or complete a project, you’re rewarded with experience points and gold, basically the same way you would be if you were playing a game.

As you get things done, you will gain levels, which will unlock more features. But if you miss too many things on your to-do list, you will start losing points towards the next level or put off bonuses you were aiming for. The apps also allow other users to help you stay motivated. It’s free and available on the web as well as for iOS and Android devices.

Zombies and other useful games

Zombies Run: Intrinsic motivation also comes from friendly competition. Several studies have shown that competition positively motivates some people. And gamification usually does this in the form of leader boards for things like exercise and health. It’s not for everyone, but if you have a competitive spirit, gamification in apps can actually help you.

In this context, apps linked with games tap into your intrinsic motivation while providing rewards. Zombies run! is a good example.

It taps your intrinsic motivation to get into running by using badges and a story as extrinsic motivation. You want to start running, which is hard, but you also want to find out what happens in the narrative. The app is available on iOS and Android devices.

Doable: This unique productivity app lets you focus on your performance by producing cool stats about your effectiveness at any given task, so you can constantly strive to beat your personal best.

Set up a goal, and Doable will track it for you, dynamically assisting you in prioritizing your activities based on which ones you’re late on, how you generally perform at getting them done and other factors. It’s light on gamification, but still manages to deliver a fun, engaging productivity tracking experience in its own quirky way. It’s available for iOS.

Why should you try gamification?

Gamification is a tool that might help you to achieve your goals. It’s not a miracle worker, and like any kind of tracking, it’s more about how you use the tool than anything else.

If you are not motivated, gamification won’t get you in shape or make you more productive.

However, it can add to an existing foundation that could help you get there if you want to.

Like any game, designers need to create a compelling experience that draws you in, and if they can’t do that you won’t maintain interest for long. Which is to say, if a gamified app doesn’t appeal to you right away, don’t bother with it.