Ask HN: What resources have helped you gamify different aspects of your life? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What resources have helped you gamify different aspects of your life?

13 pointsBinaryBuddha9 comments

I fully did not intend for it to happen, but using Strava has made me exercise more, and put more effort into improving my performance rather than just going through the motions.

This was especially true during Ireland's very long lockdowns this year, when training in groups was against the rules for long periods of time.

This has been a big one for me too. Recently I picked up a smart bike trainer and started "Zwift Rides" which have only further increased the gamification of winter exercising.

I like Productive on ios, there is a degree of gamification there with streaks and the like - https://productiveapp.io/

Using a devices that tracks how many hours I sleep and plots nice graphs was a nice way to encourage me to sleep more. Too bad Google bought Fitbit, which ruined the whole show for me :(.

I'm using a Xiaomi Mi Band fitness tracker along with the app Gadgetbridge (to replace the official Xiaomi app and stop exfil to Chinese servers) and another app called Snoreclock which measures sleep quality. It's not the fanciest setup but perhaps an alternative solution to your situation.

Tried habitrpg but never built up the habit.

What were your painpoints? Did it at least work for a while?

I remember using it for a few months and then being unable to to keep up with my fellow clan mates. I wondered if everybody else was playing with on cheat mode because I was totally burning myself out and missing out on sleep to get a few more sets of pushups or meditation in. Staying up long after midnight every day takes its toll eventually. I had also marked a few tasks as "very important" which I was unable to complete as there was so much shame connected to it. Ironically not completing the tasks just increased the shame until I wouldn't even dare to look at them anymore...

I joined a party and found out that my highest level party members were putting tasks in for brushing teeth or taking out the trash.

Also yeah, that's why I swore off these todo apps as well as the Atomic Habits mindset or GTD. It doesn't work in practice and just stresses me out. You end up forcing yourself to do things that you don't want to do at the wrong times and end up doing even less.

I decided to fall back to the old Marc Andreessen advice of doing whatever you feel like doing and that's been the most productive advice so far.

I think going solo instead of finding a clan may have contributed. I would do tasks but wouldn’t mark them immediately, and kind of tell myself I’d do it all at the end of the day and then not. Eventually also resulting in me not daring to look anymore - or worse, filling everything out at the end of the week with hazy memory.

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