The 10 Best Productivity Apps that use Gamification in 2019

How it works : Smarty Pig is a personal finance app that helps you achieve your purchasing goals.

• Let’s say you want to buy a new refrigerator. Well, with Smarty Pig, you set the refrigerator as a savings goal and then automatically deposit money from your bank account to your Refrigerator account.
• You’ll slowly fill your progress bar (savings account) until you’re 100% complete and you can buy that refrigerator guilt free.

How it works : Many people want to work out, but they have to battle against sleeping in, eating chips, watching Netflix on the couch, or late nights at the office.

• It can be incredibly difficult to get motivated and head to the gym. Fitocracy aims to drive people to live a healthier life by gamifying fitness and nutrition.
• They turn working out into an RPG (role playing game), where you earn experience and level up the more you work out and eat healthy.

How it works : Bounty Tasker takes the concept of a real life RPG to the next level.

• At its core, Bounty Tasker is a to-do list, but what really sets it apart is its Gamification elements.
• As a player, you get to choose and customize your character and assign yourself tasks that give you experience upon completion.
• As you gain in experience, you level up and earn items to outfit your character.

How it works : Challenge Timer uses the Pomodoro method to break large projects into smaller, more manageable tasks.

• Unlike most Pomodoro timers, Challenge Timer lacks a pause button, forcing you to finish your task during the given time period.

How it works : At it’s core, Beeminder is quite straightforward:

1. Set a goal

• Yes: great, keep it up!
• No: we take your money

What!?!?!… yup, that’s right, if you don’t hit the daily or weekly goals that you set with Beeminder, then they take $5 from your credit card (it’s their business model).

Sound extreme? Maybe, but it’s quite effective for people that only get motivated when they’re about to lose something.

How it works : Epic Win takes the concept of a real life RPG and makes it super fun with great artwork, fun animations, and a system that truly feels like a game you would pay for on the app store.

The character designs are imaginative, fun, and quite customizable for a productivity app.

How it works : SuperBetter was designed by Jane McGonigal to help players live a healthier and fulfilling life.

• To accomplish this goal, SuperBetter is a game where players design their “epic win” and go on quests to accomplish objectives.
• Players design their quests, team up with allies, identify “bad guys” or actions that are counterproductive, and create power ups throughout their journey in real life.

How it works : When it’s time to focus, open the Forest app and plant a seed, signifying that it’s time to focus.

• If you stay focused on your task, then the seed will grow into a might tree!
• However, if you leave the app to check on something like Facebook, then your little seedling will whither away.
• Users can spend virtual coins they earn to plant real trees in real life! How amazing is that–be productive and save the planet!
• The more you play the game and be productive, the more trees you’ll plant and the bigger your forest.
• You’ll want to keep playing because you feel ownership of your forest and you want it to keep growing.

How it works : Similar to other real life RPGs listed above, Habitica aims to gamify your life.

• Habitica has earned the #1 spot on our list because it boasts over 2,000,000 users and is a completely open source project.
• In Habitica, players create their character, create their Guilds where they team up with other players, and take on quests and defeat monsters to accomplish their objectives.