gamification of chores

Cutting-edge offices around the world are gamifying work to boost employee productivity; leverage their strategies at home to gamify your day and boost personal productivity. While you probably wouldn't want to gamify every aspect of your life, these strategies will help you supercharge a morning, lazy Sunday or even a whole weekend.

  1. Create a point system, complete with leaderboards, levels and rewards. Assign point totals to tasks or chores, allotting more points to unsavory yet necessary activities that you tend to put off. Then give yourself a point quota to meet and a reward for hitting that goal. You could even expand this concept to your household: little ones might earn points for completing homework, earning good grades or completing chores.
  2. Add a novel element to everyday or unpleasant tasks. If you hate cleaning but love dancing, blast music while cleaning and shimmy away. If you can't commit to a regular cleaning schedule, make a habit of tidying up just one thing each time you enter a room. Hate doing chores altogether? Race against the clock: how much can you get done in a 15-minute burst?
  3. Build on successes. Turn good behavior into an endurance test. How many days in a row can you do 30 minutes of physical activity? How long can you keep hitting your point quota established in No. 1? How many consecutive weeks can you put $10 into a jar? To really pump up the incentive, create a larger, attractive goal for continuing these behaviors and track your progress by marking huge X's on a wall calendar.

Do you gamify your day? What are some of your favorite methods?

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