Gamification Design: Your Most Boring Repetitive Task

Target: the single most boring repetitive task in your work. Compiling the weekly report, processing receipts, checking data, sorting email—the very thing you keep putting off.

Redesign that task as a game. (1) Diagnose in one or two sentences what the task is and why it's boring. (2) Pick at least two game mechanics (points, levels, random rewards, time limits, competition, collecting, etc.) and design the rules—decide with numbers what earns how many points and when the reward comes and what it is. (3) Explain 'why it keeps you going'—how the cause of the boredom and the mechanics interlock. (4) Check whether you can start tomorrow morning with no prep, and write your start procedure in one line.