Gamify Your Life: Gamification Apps for Self-Improvement

Try These Gamification Apps for Self-Improvement

More and more businesses are employing gamification to get customers interested in their products and services.  Schools are looking to startups like Amplify to encourage their students to be more engaged in learning, inside and outside of school.  The quantified self movement has even evolved to start measuring your brainwaves. Everywhere you look, the world is turning to games to improve participation and morale.  Could there be real use for these ideas into your everyday life?  These two new companies are saying yes, you can gamify your life.

• SuperBetter: Designed by a collaborative team of game designers and scientists, SuperBetter is a tool that can help you achieve goals or recover from a setback.  The game treats obstacles between you and your goal as “bad guys” you must defeat – whether it’s the temptation of junk food, or skipping your daily workout.  The game is social, so your “allies” can see what you need to help you achieve your goal.  SuperBetter relies on the principles of positive psychology, so logging in is cheerful and uplifting, and makes you feel better.  The game designers say that their goal is not to keep you playing as long as possible, but to make sure you feel better after you’ve played.  You don’t have to log into Superbetter everyday, forever and ever.  Once you achieve your goal, you can leave until you need it again.

• HabitRPG: Similar to SuperBetter, but with a slightly different purpose.  HabitRPG seeks to help you improve your life bit by bit, based on the idea that repetition builds habit.  Fill in several categories with activities you’d like to start or end: Habits, Dailies, and Todos.  Earn points for good activities like “1 hour of productive work” and lose points for negative activities like “eating junk food” or for not performing good activities, like “take the stairs.”  Once you’ve earned enough points, you’ll get a reward.  You can tailor the rewards to your own interests, whether it’s watching an episode of Game of Thrones or having a piece of cake.

Games aren’t just for wasting time anymore.  When you use them to improve your life, you’re retraining yourself to associate healthful activities with having fun.  What self-improvement tools do you use to make life more engaging? 

Flickr Image by schmidjon