I have been looking into a method to maintain and build good habits more fun for a while because it can be tedious. I made more time available than usual over the last couple of weeks, and I used my free time mainly looking at apps on my mobile phone to track my habits. I found Habitica, a phone app to track habits in the form of a role-playing game (RPG). It is an online task management tool while playing an RPG game, which can be a fun way to gain good habits for people like me who like RPG games.
Anyone who tries to develop new habits will find that acquiring a completely new habit is quite challenging. Getting a new habit involves stepping out of one’s comfort zone; therefore, it is natural to feel discomfort. For example, I found acquiring meditation practice to be challenging despite understanding how beneficial meditation will be. It is natural for people to stay in their comfort zone as part of their survival instinct. So, it is vital to develop new habits slowly. Taking little steps outside of your comfort zone will eventually convince your brain to see the new zone as a part of your comfort zone.
Determine which habits you want to keep requires careful evaluation since not all habits are good for you. In some way, habits are like a double-edged sword- they can be good, bad, or both. It is because a habit works for others. It does not necessarily have the same positive effect on you. Therefore, you should customize your habits to your needs and for yourself.
It is critical to evaluate, so you acquire and keep only habits that are good for you. In many cases, you may not even know whether a habit is good for you until you try it out. For example, it is difficult for a night owl to create a task to run at 5 a.m. So, it is essential to develop our habits slowly. It is a slow and tedious process, which makes the process challenging for many people. Therefore, many end up giving up on acquiring the habits.
It is possible to make the tedious process more enjoyable by applying gamification theory, game design elements in non-game contexts. My elementary teacher used to give us a sticker for attending school. Periodically, students who accumulated the most stickers got a small reward. The competition and the rewards motivate students to attend school. So, I was looking for a way to make this process more fun by using gamification.
Gamification is a robust process to encourage people to engage in certain activities. The method is so powerful that some scholars even claim it is used as a tool to manipulate people to engage in radicalization – although both the theoretical and empirical basis of the theory does not support it well (Schlegel, 2021). Gamification is still an effective way to motivate people for a higher likelihood of prolonged engagement.
Gamification has been getting a lot of attention as it is powerfully manipulative by nature. By observing games on social media platforms, gaming platforms, and private chats, Marczewski developed a framework to analyze the user types in the gamification setting. According to Maczewski (cited in Schlegel, 2021), there are six categories of users:
- Socializer, motivated by connecting to others
- Free spirits, inspired by expressing themselves or creativities
- Achiever, motivated by acquiring new skills or knowledge
- Philanthropists, motivated by a feeling of purpose or meaning by helping others
- disruptor, motivated by trolling and upsetting others in the game
- Players, motivating by getting extrinsic rewards
Schlegel investigated the user types identified by Maczewski and summarized them into five user types.
| User Type | Driver of Radicalization | Motivational Driver | Game Elements |
| Socializer | Identify Seeker | Relatedness | Gilds, team, |
| Competitor | Status Seeker | Extrinsic rewards | points, leaderboard, achievements |
| Achiever | Need for certainty about the world | Exploration, mastery | quests, certification, progress bar |
| Meaning Seeker | Need of meaning or purpose | Purpose, meaning | Epic story, sharing items |
| Disruptor | Thrill Seeker | Challenging Others | Rewards for disruption |
Maczewski’s Five User Framework
Of course, it is nearly impossible to tailor all game features to appeal to all people. Many people will enjoy the components of the same game to some extent; although, we must keep in mind that the effect of the gamified results will differ for everyone. Therefore, a good game contains all of those elements to appeal to many users.
Habitica seems to contain game elements that provide some fun components such as positive reinforcement and opportunities for collaboration or competition, which will lead to a higher likelihood of prolonged engagement. I think it may spice up my reasonable habit-building efforts in a good way. So, I decided to download the app to try it out.
First, I listed the critical daily tasks I wanted to track. Then, I allocated points according to the difficulty of completing the tasks.
- Sleep by 10:00 p.m. This will be a challenging task since I often pass my bedtime by preventing sleep. Thus, this task should have both a plus and a minus sign. This task will be moderately challenging.
- Wake up by 5:30 a.m. Waking up by 5:30 a.m. gets more challenging if I go to sleep later than 10:00 p.m. Thus, this task should have both a plus and a minus sign. This task will be moderately strenuous.
- Drink more than 80 oz water. Most days, I drink more than 80oz of water. It is a critical task to be acquired, just like sleeping. Thus, this task should have both a plus and a minus sign.
- Enter a food Journal on Fitbits. This task will be easy, but it is essential. Thus, this task should have both a plus and a minus sign.
- Do A 2-minute meditation before going to bed. This task will be a challenging task.
- Weigh first thing in the morning. Challenging. This task should have both a plus and a minus sign. I put this task as difficult because I often forget weight in the morning since I changed my phone. This task is critical for my goals. So, I decided to assign a more considerable negative consequence for not doing.
| Daily Habits | Rate | ” + “ | ” – “ |
| Sleep by 10:00 p.m. | Moderate | 2 | -2 |
| Wake up by 5:30 a.m. | Moderate | 2 | -2 |
| Drink more than 80 oz | Easy | 1 | -1 |
| Enter food Journal | Easy | 1 | 1 |
| Do a 2-minute meditation before going to bed | Difficult | 3 | -3 |
| Weigh first thing in the morning | Moderate | 2 | -3 |
I am considering the above six tasks that I cared about the most for two weeks starting this Monday. After two weeks, I plan to add challenges. Challenge is a series of tasks set up by another player or officials. You will be doing the challenge with another player. If you achieve higher points in the challenge, you may end up with germs by completing the tasks assigned by a challenge. Once you have some gems, you can spend them on getting some quests and equipment. Some challenges are created monthly, so I may need to wait until the start of next month.
I am starting this little sprint for pure curiosity. Gamification is an effective way to motivate people, and this is a fun approach to deal with my habit building. If this works well, I will use the app for future kaizen projects.
Reference
Schlegel, L. (2021). Connecting, Competing, and Trolling: “User Types” in Digital Gamified Radicalization Processes. Perspectives on Terrorism, 15(4), 54–64.