Identify The Problems and address them like a gameDesigning the Basic Framework
<ol><li>Challenges - problems and challenges you face and habits you want to build.</li><li>Activities - tasks you need to perform to overcome your challenges and build new habits.</li><li>Rewards - points that will help you accomplish milestones and redeem rewards.</li><li>Variable Rewards - it is okay to just receive smaller rewards every once in a while.</li></ol>Assign points every time you accomplish a goal.Maintain a progress system to help you see your progress to reaching your goals and unlocking rewards.

Game On: Framework for gamification

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<figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2600/1*-MDS1inhSrh43OjVxeijuA.jpeg"> </figure> It's one of those dull mornings today. The one where your bed, your blanket and you are having an intimate affair. Every voice in your head tells you to get out of this beautiful (potentially never-ending) threesome and get to the things that need your attention. But inspite of all the reasons, you find yourself going for that "5 minutes" of extra snooze. Sounds familiar?
It should be. A lot of us today suffer from the lack of self motivation to do the things that we want to do and end up feeling bored, lazy and finding ourselves with a gradually increasing waistline. Such are the workings of our brain. Sometimes they act stupid. Which is why I'll complete an entire season of Silicon Valley ( <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7pYslGR6GU">did you watch their new season trailer?</a>) and spend half a day on 9gag, but won't find the time to read a book. Our brain keeps putting things off and at times will even convince us to delay our tasks until the very last moment. <a href="https://twitter.com/timurban80">Tim Urban</a> from <a href="http://waitbutwhy.com/">WaitButWhy</a> explains this phenomena beautifully in <a href="http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html">this post</a>.
Lately, I have been playing around with the idea of harnessing the power of gamification to influence motivation and behaviour. Naturally, it wasn't long before the idea of gamifying my life popped in my head.
So here's what I did -
<h3>1. Identify The Problems</h3>
When I started designing my new gamified life, the first thing I did was to list down the problems that I wanted to solve, and for that, I needed to be self aware. A lot more self aware than I was. ( <a href="http://garyvaynerchuk.com/">Gary Vaynerchuck</a> talks more on this). Here are the problems that I identified for myself.
<ul>
	<li>Despite my physical appearances, I am actually quite lazy when it comes to exercise and working out.</li>
	<li>I've been having some trouble grasping the concept of saving money.</li>
	<li>At times, I see something shiny and expensive, things which most likely will have little or no purpose in my life, but I end up buying it nonetheless. Because...reasons.</li>
	<li>For the longest time, I have been trying to carve out some time to read a few books, but with a super fast internet connection, we all know how things can stray off.</li>
</ul> 
<h3>2. Designing The Basic Framework</h3>
Now that I know what I am trying to solve, I laid down a basic framework of four verticals ( Screenshots at the bottom) -
<ol>
	<li>
Challenges&#8202;-&#8202;A list of all the challenges I faced. I derived these from the list of problems and challenges and also included a few habits that I wanted to build</li>
	<li>
Activities&#8202;-&#8202;These are the activities that I need to perform in order to overcome my challenges and get into building new habits.</li>
	<li>
Rewards&#8202;-&#8202;This part is just plain cool. As I accomplish milestones and activities, I earn points. These points are used to redeem rewards that I have listed as the things that I want to buy.</li>
	<li>
Variable Rewards&#8202;-&#8202;Ever played a slot machine? Remember how even though you didn't hit the jackpot, you would still get smaller rewards every once in a while. This is a psychological reinforcement that would make you play the game longer. This is what I am using to strengthen my future behaviour with this exercise. If I end up doing more than what the activity requires, I get a variable reward. Like a Red Bull or a Pepporoni Pizza.</li>
</ol> 
These four verticals are at the heart of the gameplay and defining them is important. Because once I got that down, not only am I acknowledging my challenges, but also have a clear view of achievable goals and how to reach them. And more importantly, there is a tangible reward at the end of it all.
<h3>3. Assign Points</h3>
Now here is the tricky part. You must be wondering if there is a math formula that I can apply to understand how many points to assign for each activity. Unfortunately, my searches on Google didn't result in anything. So I figured out a solution for myself.
One of my primary objectives was to inculcate the habit of saving money. I didn't want a scenario where I end up unlocking a reward but at the same time my bank balance goes to zero every time I redeem that reward. To avoid this, I assigned 3x the cost of the reward as the number of points required to unlock it.
This way, I would have to work a little harder to unlock my reward but I would still end up with substantial savings.
<h3>4. Maintain A Progress System</h3>
One of the principles of gamification is feedback and review. If you've played video games, I am sure you're familiar with these mechanisms. They help you understand your progress towards achieving your goals and unlocking rewards. Now, there are multiple goal based mobile apps available but they are all suited for singular tasks. <a href="http://habitrpg.com/">Habit RPG</a> is somewhat close to start off with, but it doesn't provide a lot of customisable options.
So I set about building my own system. I did a bit of research on macros in excel and quickly figured out how to build exactly what I had in mind. Trust me. If I could do it in a day, so can you.
<figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*d2GmNpvPOBfWPqi4.png"> </figure><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*K8egNi61L7Y6neBe.png"> </figure> So on the face of it, it may seem like a trivial thing to keep yourself motivated. But it's been one month now and my brain seems to be delightfully motivated to keep going at it.
But it's not magic. This system will work only if we don't give up on it. Only if we adapt ourselves to think like that. Sure, the sneaky part of our brain will tell us to just go ahead and skip that workout session or buy that expensive wireless speaker, but with a little self control, we should be able to get the hang of it and in no time, maybe even start liking it!
Do you think this mind hack will work on you? Did you come across any other methods in which you increased productivity and motivation? Do mention in the comments below.
Thank you for your attention :)
PS&#8202;-&#8202;If you're interested in downloading the sheet and make your own customisations, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/11lrC50gLSQq11WagFl6KY523r5xuLG1Z/view?usp=sharing">here it is</a>. As macros as not supported by Google sheets, you'll have to open it in excel. Have fun :)
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It's one of those dull mornings today. The one where your bed, your blanket and you are having an intimate affair. Every voice in your head tells you to get out of this beautiful (potentially never-ending) threesome and get to the things that need your attention.

Design Experiment: How I Gamified My Life

Game On: Framework for gamification

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