I used to think gaming was an absolute waste of time.
Even though I’ve spent over half a year in total playing World of Warcraft over the past 10 years, I would sometimes feel guilty ‘wasting’ all that time.
But luckily, after a little bit of research, I realised that there are actually a number of significant benefits that we can get from playing video games.
These benefits include:
- Improving our memory and visual navigational skills (2015 Study)
- Improving our problem-solving abilities (2013 Study)
- Improved control over allocating our attention (2009 Study)
- Reducing the cognitive decline that happens naturally as we age (2017 Study)
- Helping improve conditions like anxiety and depression (2012 Study)
- Finally, in moderation, video games can also improve your social life (2017 Study)
In a world where we’re faced with constant distractions and we struggle to get things done, how do games stay so appealing to us? And what can they tell us about productivity?
Why Games Work
Video games are so addictive because they use a number of mechanics which stimulate multiple parts of our brains.
There’s a brilliant book written by Yu-Kai Chou called Actionable Gamification which discusses the 8 game mechanics that make up an interesting game.
These are:
- Epic Meaning & Calling There’s usually a purpose in a game – to rescue a princess, find a missing artefact, or save the world from the zombie apocalypse.
- Development & Accomplishment Video games often involve an element of ‘levelling up’. The more you play and practice, the better your skills become. It’s very satisfying.
- Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback You can choose how to solve problems in a game. You can learn from your mistakes, and build on what you know to find the best solution. Plus, you can also often customise your character and environment.
- Ownership & Possession We all know that video games make a tonne of money from people buying in-game items. You can also collect objects as you go. We love having a sense of ownership.
- Social Influence & Relatedness These days, people game online together as a way to hang out with their friends and have fun. Games are very social – you can play solo, but it’s often better together.
- Scarcity Video game designers deliberately add scarcity into their games – a limited number of items, or unique paths only certain players can take. Like luxury goods, we want something not everyone can have.
- Unpredictability The best video games are unpredictable. You never quite know what could come next and you’re always on the edge of your seat.
- Loss and Avoidance Getting something wrong – failing to beat the boss, getting killed by dragons – will have consequences in a game. We want to keep playing, and keep levelling up, because we don’t want to lose.
Games are so addictive because they take advantage of our in-built reward systems.
They use these mechanics to increase our motivation, which helps us overcome procrastination. Then they increase our focus which keeps us hooked until the end of the game.
So, what does this have to do with productivity?
The 5 Foundations of Gamification
As we’ve seen, games can bring a number of benefits to our lives. There are a number of actionable mechanics that we can apply to our lives to create our very own games out of otherwise boring work.
We can use game mechanics to overcome procrastination and tap into our reward systems to both increase and prolong our focus on our everyday tasks.
So, how do we actually do this?
I’ve found there are 5 ways to gamify our lives and make our work feel more like play. I call them The 5 Foundations of Gamification.
- Add a Mission
- Track Your Accomplishments
- Increase Your Ownership
- Collect Feedback
- Include Other People
1. Add A Mission
The first way we can start to gamify our life and our tasks is to introduce a mission.
Games use the idea of a mission to add meaning to the player’s journey.
When we have a clear understanding behind the meaning of a task, we’re much more motivated to start doing it. The feeling of working towards a particular mission can also increase our drive to continue doing the task to completion.
A great example of this is within a simple game of pool.
The mission is to win the game by potting the black ball, which ends the game.
The players will continue playing, regardless of how well they’re playing, because they’re working towards the mission of potting the black.
So, how can we apply this to our lives?
Each day, I like to create what I call my Daily Adventure.
I ask myself “What’s the one thing that I need to do today to consider it a success? What’s the mission?”
Once I’ve picked my Daily Adventure, I write it on a post-it note which I stick to my monitor or carry with me for the rest of the day. Whenever I find I’m lacking motivation, I look at the post-it note and remind myself of my daily mission.
This re-inspires me to continue working hard. It gives me a little boost to make it to the end of the mission.
2. Track Your Accomplishment
The second method we can use to gamify our work is to start tracking our accomplishments.
Video games are great for creating a sense of accomplishment as we progress through the story.
Games might include a progress bar at the bottom of the screen, a levelling-up system that allows us to unlock new weapons or tools, or a list of quests that we can tick off one at a time.
It could even be a combination. In World of Warcraft, a game I was obsessed with as a teenager, you’re completing quests to gain XP. When you’re levelling up you get a little ding. Then, you get a bunch of messages in your guild chat where people celebrate: “Oh my god congrats you’ve hit level 80”.
By finding as many ways as possible to recognise our progress, no matter how small, we can increase our sense of accomplishment. This gives us a constant boost in Feel-Good energy.
In the real world, this could be a physical to-do list where crossing off each task gives you that all-important feeling of accomplishment.
It could be creating a progress bar to visualise how each task is pushing you towards the end goal. Writers do this all the time by setting a word count goal, so they can track exactly how much progress they make throughout the day.
You could even use a dedicated system like Habitica which is designed to organise your tasks to gamify the whole process of getting things done.
However you choose to do it, tracking your accomplishments is a hugely satisfying process. It can make even the most boring of tasks a little bit more fun.
3. Increase Your Ownership
We all have a fundamental need for autonomy or ownership – a sense of control over the things that we’re doing.
This is something that games take huge advantage of. They giving us the chance to design our own characters and build a collection of items that are ours to keep.
Gamers will put in hundreds of hours to level up their character because they have this sense of control over their character’s journey.
So how can we use this same sense of ownership in our everyday lives?
I think there are 3 main ways we can do it: A. Take ownership of the outcome B. Take ownership of the process C. Take ownership of our beliefs
A. Ownership of the Outcome
Oftentimes we won’t have control over whether we actually have to do a task or not.
Our boss has asked us to do it, or school have given us a deadline, and we simply have to get the work done.
But, when this is the case, we still have control over the outcome. We still get to control how much effort we put into the task and we can control the quality of the work we produce.
The way this works can seem counterintuitive. But we actually need to take on more responsibility to give us this motivating feeling of control.
Usually, if we have a boring task that we just have to do, we’ll put in minimal effort and drag our heels as we get the work done. But by taking on responsibility for the outcome, by promising to deliver a great result, we can find a sense of responsibility and ownership. This can give us a boost to get the thing done.
B. Ownership of the Process
In certain circumstances, we won’t be able to take ownership of the outcomes.
For example, when you’re doing boring admin work that just needs to be completed, you can’t really control the outcome.
But you can control the process.
To do this, I like to throw what I call an Admin Party.
I go to my favourite coffee shop, put on my favourite music, and try to create a fun vibe so I can get the work done. By adding an element of fun and enjoyment to the process, we can benefit from a sense of autonomy .
C. Ownership of your Beliefs
Finally, sometimes in life, we won’t be able to control the outcome or the process.
We just have to get on with doing the thing, whether we want to or not.
But here we have one final trick to take ownership of out beliefs whilst we do the task. To do this, I use one simple mindset shift: changing “Have to” to “Get to”.
When I was a junior doctor, and the end of a stressful day I would also catch myself saying “Ugh I have to visit one last patient before I can go home”.
I felt powerless as I reluctantly helped my final patient. I left the hospital feeling all of this resentment and negativity.
Luckily, I read a great blog post by Seth Godin which suggested the trick to swap “Have to” to “Get to”.
Suddenly, I was reminded that I get to help one final patient at the end of each day.
How lucky was I that I got to help one more patient feel a little better for the night ahead?
This simple trick removed these negative feelings and gave me a positive boost as I reclaimed ownership of my beliefs – I’m lucky to have a job that helps people.
4. Collect Feedback
The fourth foundation of gamification is to collect feedback. To explain the power of feedback, let’s take a video game like Elden Ring.
People can spend days fighting a boss like the cursed creature Margit, dying repeatedly to try and beat him.
With each death, you might learn something new that helps you adjust your strategy for the next attempt. You need to figure out the timings of his attacks, when to defend, and when best to fight back.
Until eventually, you manage to defeat the boss and win the reward.
In Actionable Gamification, Yu-Kai Chou defines creativity as “finding multiple ways to solve the same problem”. This is what we’re doing every time we fight Margit. Even if you’re just dying repeatedly, night after night, there’s something incredibly motivating about finding those extra solutions to the problem.
These quick feedback loops and creative solutions work together to give us a huge sense of empowerment.
So the way to think about this in our day-to-day lives is to ask how we can shorten that feedback loop so we can explore more solutions.
If you’re a student and you’re studying for an exam that’s a few months away, that’s a really long feedback loop. We need to find a way to introduce a shorter feedback loop to take advantage of this feeling of empowerment.
You could introduce weekly tests for a bit of fun. Or you could start a challenge with your friends to see who can study the most each week to win a little fun prize.
By introducing an exciting short-term feedback loop, we can increase our sense of empowerment. Creating little checkmarks along the route to our long-term goal will boost out motivation.
5. Include Other People
The final way we can add an element of gamification into our lives is to include other people.
Games are great at creating a sense of community. Back during the lockdowns of Covid-19, me and my brother bought a PS4 to log onto War Zone to hang out with the boys.
We found that having a group Zoom call with your friends could just be a bit awkward. Whereas, when you’re all in a gaming session, the conversation just flows naturally.
This is because we find things more fun if people in our social group are also doing the thing, or if we can do the thing as part of a group.
So the way we can apply that into our lives is to find ways to work together with other people.
There are many different ways to do this. For example, you could book a group session in the library. You could find an online accountability buddy using a service like Focusmate. Or you could join a cowering session like the Writer’s Hour at the London Writer’s Salon.
Or if you’d like to really take advantage of joining an online community of like-minded people, you might like to check out my new online group named Productivity Lab.
If you join the Lab, we’ll help you double your productivity so you can do more of what matters to you, while enjoying the journey along the way.
The Transformative Power of Gamification
Gamifying our tasks can help transform even the most boring work into an engaging, rewarding process.
By introducing a clear mission, tracking accomplishments, increasing your ownership, collecting quicker feedback, and involving others, you can tap into the same mechanisms that make video games so enjoyable.
We can use games to add an element of fun to our lives. But they can also help us overcome procrastination and boost our motivation.
By turning productivity into a game, we can start to get more done and, most importantly, enjoy the process along the way.
If you’re looking for more info on how to make the most of you time, then I recommend checking out Spark 2025. It’s an online summit I’ll be running between the 4th-5th January 2025, designed to help you build your own sustainable productivity systems to get stuff done. You can reserve your free spot here.
