Motivate Yourself by Turning Your Life Into Fun Games

Explore self-gamification and understand what this unique approach means for turning projects and activities into fun games, and why it makes sense.

Turn your life into games to boost engagement and everyday fun, using progress bars, badges, points, and leaderboards. Adopt self-gamification to track progress with a score, while drama raises stakes.

Apply game design elements to your life and become both designer and player of your own self-gamification, and learn how three approaches combine to turn daily life into fun games.

Combine anthropology, kaizen, and gamification to practice self-gamification, live in the moment, and achieve goals through small, non-judgemental steps and game-inspired motivation.

Explore self-gamification by showing how three approaches turn life into games, drawing on Ian Bogost's Play Anything and the attached articles to analyze admired figures and paths to success.

Design your own self-motivational games and integrate others' gamified ideas into daily life, while observing yourself non-judgmentally like an anthropologist.

Study yourself as an anthropologist to boost awareness and kindness, observing your thoughts nonjudgmentally and with curiosity as you explore your own behavior and motivations.

Assess your tasks by classifying them as urgent or not urgent and important or not important, and explore attitudes—escape from or to them—through gamification and Yu-kai Chou's eight core drives.

Explore two procrastination-driven task types—'want to do but have no time' and 'don’t want to do but must'—with examples from work, family, and personal life.

Examine your escape-to and escape-from tasks, from breaks like watching television or social media to chores like laundry and cleaning. Reflect on personal examples to turn tasks into game-like motivation.

Observe your feelings non-judgmentally. Apply three ideas: what you resist persists; no two things can occupy the same you; anything you allow to be allows you to be.

Practice non-judgmental seeing to reveal why you escape from tasks and how to reframe them as parts of bigger goals, with kindness and honesty to yourself.

Develop awareness of your behaviors, reframe escape-from tasks as part of a bigger dream, and turn them into escape-to opportunities while preparing to take small, effortless steps toward your goals.

Apply self-gamification principles and observe yourself non-judgmentally, practice Kaizen, understand procrastination, and identify the smallest steps to move toward your goals.

Kaizen means continual improvement through small, effortless steps, rooted in Japan and popularized by Toyota; Maurer’s six strategies—small questions, thoughts, actions, solving small problems, rewards, and recognizing small moments—guide progress.

Explore the brain's three parts: brain stem, midbrain with amygdala, and cortex, and how fight or flight and fear affect motivation when facing new goals and changes.

Identify escape-from and escape-to tasks on your to-do list, then choose a small, concrete next step toward your dream, guided by non-judgmental reflection, kaizen, anthropology, and gamification.

Gamify your life by applying kaizen's tiny, effortless steps to escape-from tasks; identify your next mini-step and build habits through daily, playful practice.

Explore self-gamification by applying kaizen, non-judgmental self-observation, and small-step actions to overcome procrastination; preview the final gamification skills and how to design motivational games.

Explore the third and final skill of self-gamification: gamification itself and game design elements. Learn to see your projects and activities as games and design, play, and develop motivational games.

Explore the four core game elements—goal, rules, feedback system, and voluntary participation—and see how any project, from contracts to workouts, becomes a self-gamification opportunity.

Examine voluntary participation as the essential driver of games, and how self-gamification requires designing, playing by your own rules, and continual improvement.

Gamify your day by observing yourself non-judgmentally, becoming the perfect game designer of your life. Plan kaizen moves, treat to-do lists as game plans, drawing inspiration from Candy Crush Saga.

Identify the core game components—goal, rules, feedback, and voluntary participation—and apply smaller, deadline-aligned goals and game-inspired rules to manage personal projects as a designer and player.

Apply simple, game-like frameworks to boost motivation: the 5-minute perseverance game, project crush planning, and a point system that treats tasks as playful challenges.

Design tasks as games, observe procrastination, and treat yourself as the player to enjoy starting and finishing. Use points and rounds to boost mood and keep fun at the core.

turn life into a motivating game by awarding points for small tasks, applying escape-from and escape-to ideas, and scheduling brief, focused sessions to trigger flow.

Explore the components of a game and apply self-gamification to design, play, and develop motivational projects. Learn how to start playing, practice, and share your plans in discussion.

Discover how to start playing your self-gamification games multiple times a day, keep practicing, and share your motivational games to sustain progress.

Start playing your daily tasks by applying anthropology, self-gamification, kaizen, and gamification to observe non-judgmentally, take small steps, and earn points or badges as you progress.

Observe your thoughts and world non-judgmentally, then gamify your days with small steps, points, and rules you design and test, continuously adjusting for well-being and progress.

Practice self-gamification to spark self-motivation and share it with others, modeling the practice that motivates across management, anthropology, kaizen, and gamification.

Learn the best way to start playing your games, keep practicing self-gamification, and share your progress to sustain motivation.

Reflect on yourself non-judgmentally to observe progress and mindset shifts, then apply anthropology, kaizen, and gamification to design personal games with points for progressing toward your goals.

Explore the bonus lecture resources, including self gamification and a compressed guide the who what when where why and how of turning life into fun games.