People dread some tasks simply because of how tedious and boring they are. Time goes by slowly when completing them.
These tasks may be necessary, but that doesn’t mean the effort they require seems like time well spent. Getting them over with is the primary goal.
Unless you learn how to gamify them.
Applying game-like elements (challenges, rewards, levels, competition, points, and tracking progress) to repetitive and boring tasks can transform routine work into engaging and enjoyable quests.
When tasks are gamified, they offer a sense of achievement and fun, thereby boosting motivation and the desire to complete them with more rigor. It only takes a little creativity to turn mundane tasks into game-like activities.
Everyday chores and tasks, like driving, grocery shopping, washing dishes, doing laundry, cleaning, and cooking are ripe for gamification. So are workplace tasks like responding to email, filling out forms, managing calendars, data entry, social media posting, and budgeting.
Any tedious task can be made more interesting by incorporating game-like elements into its completion. For instance, consider the mundane task of entering data.
Making a game of it could include awarding points for each accurate and timely entry, creating badges or levels for each consecutive day of error-free entries, establishing progress bars to visually track how much data has been entered against a set goal, and introducing leaderboards of friendly competition based on accuracy and speed.
By turning the uninteresting data entry work into a challenge or game, team members feel rewarded and motivated to do better. Pick a chore, task, or activity that you dread and consider how you might gamify it.
Consider the many games you enjoy and how you might introduce one or more elements to the task. It’s not that hard and worth the time. You will likely find that a game-like approach makes the task less tedious and much more pleasant.
Games make everyday work feel more rewarding and less monotonous. Make a game of the most mundane task in your day and then enjoy the contest.
Game on.
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
