“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play really is the work of childhood.” – Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.
Read that again.
Now, what if I were to tell you that play doesn’t have to end with adulthood? Play is serious learning – for everyone. From improving our critical thinking skills to practicing behaviors and habits that improve our daily functioning, we need to play! But, “Why?” you may ask. “Adulting is serious work. There’s no time or benefit to playing anymore.”
I would counter that with a simple question. How often have you wished to be given back your crayons, recess, and blanket forts?
As adults, we have been told, repeatedly, to grow up, stop playing, and be serious. But look around you. What has all this seriousness gotten us? We’ve seen the impact and repercussions of “serious adulting” as the world around us falls into chaos and discord and we find ourselves increasingly dissatisfied with our personal lives. We’ve forgotten the rules of the playground – at least the good ones. And the number one rule was this: Have FUN!!
We’ve taken the fun out of the everyday. We gave up our crayons and stifled our creativity. There’s no more imaginative play where you pretend to be your favorite TV, comic, or book characters and no more interactions with others who are doing the same. We’ve forgotten the joy of friendly competition as we race across the playground, simply for the sake of running free.
Well, I’m telling you that you can find some of that playful spirit again and put some imagination into your life through games, specifically through gamification.
At its root, gamification applies game mechanics to everyday tasks and learning – things such as rewards, badges, quests, competition, and leaderboards. Gamification is about making the mundane things that need to get done into FUN! Whether it’s a gamified to-do list that rewards you with a physical reward (treats and fun activities), digital badges (stickers!), or a coveted ranking among your peers, there are ways to gamify your life and make it more entertaining, productive, and satisfying.
And in the digital age, we are blessed to have access to hundreds of apps that do just that. I’ll detail the ones I found most appealing and user-friendly below, but first I want to cover some very important ideas to the concept of gamification. First and foremost, it must entertain you, it must keep your interest, and it must motivate you – whatever format you use in gamification. There are journals available that make life a daily quest. There are, of course, apps. And there is simply making a game of things on your own. Creating your own reward system can be daunting, though, so it’s not something I recommend for beginners. Especially when there are so many good options out there where someone has already done all the design work for you!
Secondly, you need to change your vocabulary. Getting rid of “have to do” and “gotta get done” and replacing those phrases with words like goal, objective, achievement, and win, is going to radically shift your perspective in regards to being productive and developing those good habits you’ve been trying to adopt.
Lastly, don’t go it alone. Tell people what you are doing, what you are trying to achieve, and how you are going about doing it. You’d be surprised how many people may just join you, not only out of support, but because they can see the potential benefits for themselves as well.
When it comes to ready-made gamification, we’re all largely familiar with things like DuoLingo and FitBit, but there are plenty of other apps out there waiting for you to discover them. I have found that www.gamifylist.com is a good place to start. This website has a compilation of over 500 gamification apps, ranging in quality and complexity, to help you explore and find that one app that is just right for your needs.
As for individual apps, I have personally found Finch to be the most motivating and easy to keep up with, but your mileage may vary. In Finch, you take care of a little bird (birb!) friend, who goes on daily adventures that are completed in 7-8 hours unless you finish tasks that are set out for you or that you have added on your own – completing goals lets your birb come back from their learning adventures sooner. The goal/task list is fully customizable, including icons and emojis, and you can skip or snooze goals as needed. There are even opportunities for reflection about why you skipped or snoozed a goal on that day. You can dress your birb, decorate the interior of their birdhouse, and connect with friends and other users through the Finch Fam community – including a Discord channel. Finch is free with limited perks, or unlimited perks with a yearly subscription to Plus for approximately $40-70, depending on your needs.
However, taking care of a little animated creature may not be your thing, and, if so, there are other apps for daily productivity. I highly recommend Habitica if roleplaying games (RPGs) are your passion. This is often termed the “gold standard” for gaming-based productivity apps, with quests, characters, challenges, and more available through the yearly subscription plan, which is $49.99. Other apps that run more along the RPG vein include Do It Now, which has a more basic user interface, and Epic To-Do List, which is more creative and graphically complex. Both are free for limited use, with subscriptions available.
Another area of gamification interest is self-improvement through self-care. While Finch does include self-care goals as options, it is not focused on this topic. If you are looking for something that appeals to your gaming side, I cannot recommend anything more highly than SuperBetter. This app is focused on mental health improvement and the development of resilience, which helps us weather and recover adversity and challenges better. SuperBetter is free for 14 days to see if it works for you and is then $24.99 yearly after that.
If you find the idea of befriending, caring for, and evolving little critters for the sake of learning more about your emotions and motivations, along with some fun perks like growing fantastical plants in your own peaceful garden setting, I suggest checking out VoidPet Garden. These little squiggles are oddly endearing as they visit your garden and teach you about different emotions and mental states. You can play for free, or get the Giga subscription for $34.99 a year.
There are hundreds of apps available for free or even lower cost subscriptions that can put the fun back into daily life. Additionally, learning about gamification and how it can be readily applied to daily tasks may give you a path forward to fight the procrastination and blahs that often accompany a standard to-do list. It’s all about having fun, making you care about that list of objectives, and delivering a little smile as you gain rewards for doing what needs to be done on a daily basis, be that simple tasks or that all-important self-care.
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