Gamification, or rewards for achieving goals, is something everyone has experienced at least once, right?
Actually, I often felt that I couldn’t find a reward that truly resonated with me. For example, people often say, “I’ll treat myself to a nice meal after finishing this task,” or “I’ll go to a spa after completing this job.” These didn’t feel appealing to me.
That’s because firstly I am a grown-up and I can afford most of the stuff for myself. Not much “reward” feeling exists in it.
Secondly, I was looking for smaller-scale rewards for smaller tasks.
For instance, paying off a credit card bill today or scheduling a doctor’s appointment. In terms of work, routine tasks that I have to do right away but I’m not fond of, simple tasks like setting up meetings, processing travel expenses, or weekly summaries.
I tried asking AI and searching the web, but I couldn’t find anything that excited me.
So, how can you find rewards that work for you?
I found them using the following method, so if you have similar experiences, give it a try:
Method (Fill the table)
- List moments when you feel small happiness. About 10-20
- Categorize and score each one. (I categorized them as follows:)
- Sense of detectiveness
- Score – 3: strong, 2: so so, 1: weak
- Time consumption
- Score – 3: < 15 secs, 2: < 1 min, 1: > 1min)
- Psychological easiness of accessibility
- Score – 3: Feel very easy 2: < a bit troublesome, 1: > very troublesome )
- Sense of achievement
- Score – 3: strong, 2: so so, 1: weak
- Satisfaction
- Score – 3: strong, 2: so so, 1: weak
- Sense of detectiveness
- Adds up the scores for each one
- Adopt the ones with high total scores.
- If it doesn’t feel like a reward after trying it, stop using that method and try the next one on the list.
Few notes:
- The key is to be honest with your feelings and senses.
- You need to find out what makes you happy. Quick reviewing how you felt upon gaming would help. In my case, when I play games on the phone or Nintendo, I enjoy “unknown”, “challenge”, and “mystery”. I like Detective type of game, and that is why the 1st category was “sense of detctiveness”.
- Modify the category to fit you
Example of mine
My Top 3 is
No.1 Fill-in just 1 section of Sudoku
No.2 Fill-in Checkbox with colored pens
I heavily use paper planner, and keep all To-Dos there. Additionally, I love coloring books. Therefore, coloring the checkbox is much more satisfying than adding checkmark into the checkbox.
No.3 Move 1 Perl from left to right
I have many craft beads, and Perls are 1 of my favorite beads.
As a beginning of the day, I place the same number of beads as the number of tasks in the left dish. As day goes on, the beads move to the right dish 1 by 1.
Conclusion:
You can 1 step back and see how and when you have ever felt excitement and happiness in your past life. It should not be necessarily big. Small ones must be here and there around you.
Everyone, give it a try!