Friday 11 December 2015

Gamifying lifehacking

The following is a high-level concept for an app that gamifies lifehacking/self improvement.

Users input into the app the details of all goals they are working towards improving, and decompose these into sub-goals. Each sub-goal has a set frequency, and time for check-in. For example, the top level goal might be eating heathily, and this might be decomposed into the following sub-goals:

  • Eat a healthy breakfast, checkin daily 10am, 10 points
  • Don't snack between breakfast and lunch, checkin daily 12:30pm, 10 points
  • Eat a healthy lunch, checking daily 1pm, 10 points
  • Don't snack between lunch and dinner, checkin daily 7pm, 10 points
  • Eat a healthy dinner, checking daily 8pm, 10 points
  • Don't snack between dinner and bed, checkin daily 10pm, 10 points
The app creates a reminder at the specified checkin time and asks the user, "Did you complete the sub-goal". If the user answers "Yes", they get points, if they answer "No" they don't.

The user can see their points trend, which may help motivate them to achieve higher points.

It may be possible to standardise the points awarded for each sub-goal, allowing users to compare points with their friends and compete on leaderboards.

Kinds of goals the app would work with:
  • Go to the gym for 1h daily
  • Brush your teeth for 4 minutes
  • Meditate daily
  • Drink 8 pints of water a day