Gamify your Semester

One of the skills I've cultivated over the years is converting boring or tedious tasks into relatively entertaining activities. Life is full of junk that has to be done--doing homework, grading papers, washing dishes, doing laundry. Some of it is fun in itself, like reading books for a class that you really love. But it helps to have some outside motivation to do the things that you consider boring.

Enter gamification.

Habitica

I just discovered this one, and I wish it had been around when I was a student.
(Who am I kidding, when I was a student, there were no "apps"--we played RPGs the old fashioned way, with dice and a human DM. And I, of course, was way to cool to be a D&D nerd. Not.)

Back to my point. Habitica is an RPG, with all the hallmarks of that kind of game--you design and upgrade your avatar, earn gold, fight monsters with raiding parties, join guilds.

If that sentence makes no sense to you, then skip down to Mindbloom, below. That game might be more up your alley.

But if you are all about RPGs, what if you could play one and NOT be wasting time? In Habitica, your "ToDo's" give you gold when you complete them. You choose your goals, the type of goals, and whether each one gives you a lot of gold or a little gold based on how hard they are for you. Then you can buy rewards with the gold you earn--weapons, armor, or new looks for your avatar.

Sound like fun? Check it out online first at habitica.com and then download the iOS or Droid app on your phone. (Go online first, because there is a quick tutorial and the interface is much easier to navigate...and you can't play with your avatar on the phone app).

Mindbloom

Mindbloom is a much more sensory experience, with inspirational music and images. There are no monsters to fight here. It is restful and lovely to put on your headphones and grow your tree each day. The "game" is to give your tree sun as you gain inspiration to complete your goals and give it rain as you complete specific actions. Then the tree grows, giving you seeds that allow you to change your Mindbloom experience. Mindbloom is very much a life coaching kind of experience, where you create branches for different parts of your life, including lifestyle, career, health, creativity, finance, relationships, and so on. For students, the career branch can include studying or whatever specific tasks you need to do in school.

Mindbloom's social tools fit the theme. You can see the forest of your friend's trees, and you can share with them or on social media your progress. It is perfectly possible to use Mindbloom effectively without social interaction, if you prefer that.

Mindbloom's mobile website supports use on your phone or other device* and the company has a whole range of related apps that I haven't explored yet.

Feel free to message me about your experience with these apps, or if you know of other gamification tools you'd recommend.

Have a great semester!

Addendum 1/15: I haven't successfully used Mindbloom mobile on my Samsung Note, but it does work on my iPad so there might be some issues with Android devices.

What We're Following: Welcome to Night Vale

         Dinner conversation wandered from the weather to traffic to the Faceless Old Woman to the Sheriff’s Secret Police. That is how I discovered Welcome to Night Vale, a bi-weekly podcast and series of novels written by Joseph Fink and Jeffery Cranor. It turned out that “The Weather” and “Traffic” are regular segments on the show.
        The show’s premise is as a community-radio program reporting to a small fictional town. While this is a similar conceit to A Prairie Home Companion, Night Vale has more in common with Stephen King’s Derry or Lovecraft’s Arkham than Lake Wobegon. Our host Cecil (played by Cecil Baldwin) reports on mundane goings-on like the opening of the New Old Opera House, a plot to steal the Registry of Middle-School Crushes, or the escape of Antiques.
        Each episode is a self-contained story, so I was glad I didn’t have to catch up on years of backstory to jump into Night Vale. Despite Cecil and guest-stars like Wil Wheaton and Jackson Publick taking us through story arcs (Carlos does eventually return from the Desert Otherworld inside the Dog Park), it seems sometimes as if Night Vale - where screen actor Lee Marvin just turned 30 - will never change.
        Welcome to Night Vale is an absurd and surreal kind of comedy. It has occasionally raised the hair on my arms, to be sure, but I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to replay a segment I missed thanks to my own laughter. I’m glad to have its weirdness in my ears twice a month. If deadpan humor like The Addams Family or A Season of Unfortunate Events is something you enjoy, I suggest you take a trip to Night Vale as soon as you can.