Small biz owners: Are you a big fan of video games? If so, you are in luck, because there is a productivity tool that can help you in completing your goals like playing a game. Introducing, HabitRPG.
HabitRPG, developed by Tyler Renelle, is a habit tracker app that treats your goals like a role playing game. If you are a video gamer, you know what a role playing game (RPG) is. Just in case you don’t know, here’s a good definition from Wikipedia:
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.
In RPG, when you successfully complete your tasks, you will typically get experience points and coins. Experience points will allow you to level-up and make your character stronger and more powerful. Coins are used to buy in-game items – such as swords, books, etc. – depending on the theme of the RPG game.
A good example of gamification – the use of game-thinking and game mechanics in a non-game context in order to engage users and solve problems – HabitRPG brings the RPG principles into your daily business and personal life, letting you beat your goals and gain rewards when you done so.
But why games?
Competition + reward = motivation
This might be relevant to you: I’m not a good user of productivity tools. I’ve signed up with several popular online productivity tools and install the apps on my mobile devices, and although they are all great, they don’t keep me productive for a long time.
For a day or two, I can keep up with the goals I set in the apps. But after that, I am coming back to my old self.
I am a heavy user or Google Calendar. Although it’s not a true productivity app, it helps me organize my days and set my deadlines. However, it’s not good enough in keeping me stick to my goals. “Build a new website” goal I set 2 weeks ago has not been done today.
Although there’s a reminder system to help me to have the goal on top of my mind, I have many reasons NOT to complete the goal. Not that I am procrastinating, but something urgent always come up, and because of that I have my excuses to validate my action.
As a solopreneur, the entire course of my business depends on me. I need something to motivate me to complete my goals better, obviously! I need something that can get me going: Something I am passionate about that can keep me engaged for many hours.
For me, that’s games. In video games, beating goals gives me rewards. And if you are often playing those games on Facebook, you tend to look what other users are doing. When they are doing well, you are motivated to keep on playing.
Those sort of habits are the bread and butter of HabitRPG. Instead of completing fiction goals in games, why don’t users complete real-life goals and still get rewards in the game?
How HabitRPG works
Upon signing up with HabitRPG, you will see a dashboard, showing you your “avatar” – your in-game character, along with the health bar (in red) and experience bar (in orange.)
Of course, you need to set your goals before you can start playing the game 🙂 You can set 3 types of goals: Habits, dailies and todos. You track habits constantly, dailies on daily basis, and todos are things you need to get done eventually.
Now, every time you achieve a goal, you will get experience points and gold/silver. You can use those to buy in-game stuffs, such as swords and so on. When you fail to achieve a goal, you will lose hit points, and if you lose enough hit points, your character will die and you need to use a “token” to start over. In need to confirm this, but I assume tokens will need to be purchased.
Furthermore, if you are a game enthusiast, I’m sure you understand that starting over sucks. Those “pain points” will push people to keep on track.
Check out HabitRPG’s intro plus crowdfunding (more on this below…) video to learn more about the app:
Further development will be happening soon: Enter crowdfunding
HabitRPG is getting raving review from Reddit, LifeHacker, and other major publications. With so much interest in this tool, arises some app-related issues. Along with the fact that funds are needed to new features and grow the app beyond what it is today, HabitRPG launched a project on Kickstarter.
It has received more than $25,000 funding goal – which means, the project is successful and the app will undergo major improvements: Hiring talents, adding new features to make goal completion a more rewarding experience, and integration with third-party apps like Google Calendar, FitBit and so on.
As a Google Calendar user, I am looking forward for the new feature – I know it would be a great help for me to finish my tasks and “beat” my daily tasks better.
Check out HabitRPG’s crowdfunding project here
Takeaway
Gamification is a trend in business world. It’s used in employee training, motivating employees to learn better; it’s used in decision making process, helping decision makers consider options in a simulated environment to help them control risks. It’s used in investing, so that you will learn the necessary basics before you use real money in the real world.
Although it’s still in its infancy – with issues need to address, it’s proven to be appealing to many – and have helped many especially in dealing with productivity issues.
HabitRPG has a good potential to go all the way. It caters a strong niche – gamers – and when carefully crafted in term of rewards, it potentially helps thousands of people to be more productive, as well as breaking bad habits.
Will you give it a try? Please share your opinion about the app!
