But what if we turn the whole idea of gaming addiction on its head? What if we were to use the concepts that are embedded into MMORPGs, those elements that make them so addictive, and turn them into productivity tools?<\/p>\n
Imagine, instead of spending five hours a day glued to your screen doing a raid, you spending five hours a day studying, or learning a new skill. I believe that if you implement the right strategies, it\u2019s perfectly doable to turn yourself into a productivity-addict.<\/p>\n
If you want to make this happen, you need to take some lessons from your favorite role-playing games and apply them to your daily life.<\/p>\n
Here are some ideas on how to go about it\u2026<\/p>\n
Gain some XP and level up\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the aspects that makes RPG\u2019s so addictive and fun is the way you become stronger. Killing monsters and completing quests in World of Warcraft nets you experience points. Get enough of those, and you level up, which means you become stronger, get better stats, new spells and abilities and just become a better version of yourself. You usually also get a victory fanfare music.<\/p>\n All of this is super rewarding to your brain, and it\u2019s one of the key drivers that make us want to play more.<\/p>\n Now, getting a stronger Fireball spell isn\u2019t going to do you much good in real life. Until some martial arts master invents a real-life Kamehameha Wave, shooting energy out of your hands isn\u2019t really a thing outside of Imaginationland.<\/p>\n But there are so many different real-life abilities that we can<\/em> level up.<\/p>\n For example, take something like language learning.<\/p>\n Want to learn French? Taking French classes is an okay way to go about it, but outside of exams and the occasional diploma, these don\u2019t really have a way of saying, \u2018you just levelled up\u2019 and became better. Usually, there\u2019s just a gradual, unquantifiable improvement of abilities, but there\u2019s never a real reward after each class and you can\u2019t also put numbers on them.<\/p>\n On the other hand, you\u2019ve got an app like Duolingo, which applies the \u2018gamification\u2019 approach. After each successful lesson, you get XP points and there are also different levels you can reach per subject. In my opinion, this is one of the key elements which makes this app such a successful language learning tool.<\/p>\n You can hit level 3 in Hungarian, one of the most notoriously hard languages in the world, and actually have fun doing it<\/em><\/p>\n Still, an app like Duolingo has its limits. One problem is that it doesn\u2019t give you the ability to practice conversation, which is still the most effective way to really learn a language fast.<\/p>\n In that case, you\u2019re going to have to create your own levelling-up system.<\/p>\n The Skyrim Way of learning skills…<\/strong><\/p>\n In most RPG\u2019s, levelling up means killing monsters and completing quests. In those kinds of games, killing enough people, for some bizarre reason, also makes you better at picking locks and hacking computers. I don\u2019t advise taking that approach, since it doesn\u2019t really work like that in real life, and I don\u2019t want any blood on my hands either.<\/p>\n Then you\u2019ve got your games like Skyrim where you have to practice a certain ability to get better at it. Want to become a better swordfighter? Hit things with a sword a lot. Want to become a better weaponsmith? Smith more weapons. Want to become a silver-tongued smooth talker? Talk to everyone you meet along the way.<\/p>\n This is the approach we\u2019re going to take. (But still, refrain from learning killing-related skills, please)<\/p>\n To this end, all you really need is a spreadsheet and a quantifiable activity, linked to a certain skill, that you can award XP and levels to.<\/p>\n In my case, what I did was set aside time for conversations with native speakers through Skype. One hour of conversation netted me one experience point. One hundred experience points take me to level 2.<\/p>\n This is what I call a quantifiable goal. While using quantifiable goals has its limits, and merely \u2018doing\u2019 an activity doesn\u2019t automatically ensure mastery of it, up to a certain point having more hours of conversation behind your belt has a pretty decent correlation with acquiring a higher skill level in the language you\u2019re trying to learn.<\/p>\n All it takes for you to keep track of your stats is a Google Spreadsheet or an Excel file<\/em><\/p>\n The cool thing about this is that it\u2019s not limited to just learning languages. You can set quantifiable goals for about everything and turn those into experience points and levels. You can then turn this into a motivational technique, wherein the more hours put into it, the higher your skill level is.<\/p>\n Let me give you a few more examples:<\/p>\n If you\u2019re in college: studying 20 pages of your course gives you 1 experience point. 50 XP gets you to the next level. The higher your level by the time your exam, the better your grades are likely going to be. Level 100 gets you to PhD levels of knowledge.<\/p>\n If you want to write a book: 500 words = 1 XP. The more you write, the higher your level is going to be, which equates to better writing skills. Alternatively, you can also use 1 hour of editing to equal 1 XP. Level 100 and you\u2019re Ernest Hemingway.<\/p>\n Exercise: One hour of exercise = one experience point. More exercise correlates with a better physical shape. Be careful not to overdo it though, and get enough rest if you\u2019re getting tired. Level 100 = Olympic level<\/p>\n Learning guitar: practising one hour = one XP. 100 XP to level up. Once you get to level 100 you\u2019re the new Slash. (Level 3 is Justin Bieber)<\/p>\n I think you get the picture. Whatever it is you want to become better at or whatever you want to achieve, you can motivate yourself by turning it into a real-life RPG.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t always have to be \u2018Lockpicking\u2019 or \u2018Archery\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n Complete epic quests and reward yourself with phat loot<\/strong><\/p>\n While gaining XP and levels is pretty rewarding on its own, there are ways to kick things up a notch. You can do this by setting challenges for yourself to complete. To stay within the realm of World of Warcraft, we\u2019re not going to call these \u2018challenges\u2019. We\u2019re going to be way cooler than that and just call them quests.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, there are no dragons to slay or princesses to save (I seriously advise you not to take on Eastern European sex-trafficking rings as if you\u2019re Liam Neeson in Taken. That will not end well for you.)<\/p>\n Our quests aren\u2019t going to be quite as exciting as the above, true, but they\u2019ll be fun and challenging none the less.<\/p>\n Learning French? Here\u2019s a mighty quest for you, noble chevalier<\/em>. Read Les Miserables <\/em>by Victor Hugo entirely. That\u2019s almost 2000 pages of classic French literature. (watching the musical doesn\u2019t count)<\/p>\n A guitar-learning quest might be to master Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin. If you\u2019re a decent level and you can find a few party members, why not perform a gig in the local rock rally? A truly mighty adventure filled with glory and riches would then be to record an album.<\/p>\n A good example of a proper writing quest is publishing your first novel or even just a short story on your blog.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/focusme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/word-image.png\")
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