• Helping You Know What To Do

  Filed under A Dude's Guide to Kids, A Dude's Guide to Life
  Feb 3

  by Richard

  Sometimes getting stuff set down on a to-do list isn’t enough to get them done. I know. Hard to believe, dudes, but it’s true.

  The good news is that you and I aren’t the only ones who have this problem. In fact, so many people suffer in a similar way there’s an entire industrial enclave dedicated to helping us get our work done.

  Gamification is a process whereby people import some of the things that make games fun (achievement levels, gaining points and experience points, winning games) and grafts them seamlessly onto chores and work. Gamification can actually make some work that used to be boring and tedious seem like fun.

  No. Really.

  For those of you with difficulty in meeting goals, there’s a great program called Epic Win. EpicWin is a cross between a digital organizer and a role-playing video game. You choose an avatar character that appeals to you, and then select a task that you want to accomplish. As tasks are completed, players pick up points, “treasures,” and loot.

  There are task timers for those of us who get off task more easily than others. You can set up a task you’ve got to do, allot a specific amount of time in which it can be done and then start. These timers will show you how much time has passed and how much time you’ve got left to go. This sort of soft pressure is a great way to encourage yourself to complete those jobs.

  If you’ve got a young dude who is having trouble doing routine chores, mostly because chores are boring and take too long and are too hard and are boring (sound familiar?), there’s something called iRewardChart. You input the task you want the young dudette to complete and it helps to track her behavior and her progress toward meeting her goal. This can give her a visual reminder of how well she’s doing and how far she’s got left to go. That sort of thing can be a real lifesaver when you’re fighting over chores.

  As you can see, there’s a metric ton of stuff out there to help you get and stay organized, as well as give you the incentives you need to actually stay on task and get stuff done.

  So go out there and get it, dudes. Well, maybe you ought to write a note to remind yourself to do it first. I mean, you never know.

  • Spread the word, dude!

  Tags: A Dude's Guide to Kids, A Dude's Guide to Life, Achievement Levels, additude, Amount Of Time, Avatar, behavior, Chores, Courage, Digital Organizer, dude, Dudette, Enclave, Epic, Experience Points, games, jobs, Lifesaver, Loot, Metric Ton, Process Whereby People, Reminder, richard, Role Playing Video Game, Routine Chores, Stuff, Timers, Video Game, Visual Reminder, young dude
  
  Tagged as: Achievement Levels, additude, Amount Of Time, Avatar, behavior, Chores, Courage, Digital Organizer, dude, Dudette, Enclave, Epic, Experience Points, games, jobs, Lifesaver, Loot, Metric Ton, Process Whereby People, Reminder, richard, Role Playing Video Game, Routine Chores, Stuff, Timers, Video Game, Visual Reminder, young dude
  
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