I have a moleskin notebook that I fill with all the tiny ‘to do’s’ that fill my everyday life. It serves as a constant reminder of all the things that need to be done in the very near future. I use Google calendar to physically remind me of an appointment, meeting or deadline, via iPhone notification. After having the sick feeling of forgetting or thinking that I had forgotten about something or someone too many times, I found a way to curb to some degree the confusion of my everyday ‘to do’s.’
While I write all the little things that make up each day or document them in my Google calendar, I fail to write the things down that are in the big picture. I get so much satisfaction out of crossing things or checking things off my lists. It’s a visual accomplishment. Even the littlest achievement. But for some reason I have never written down the goals of the big picture. I didn’t have a post-it that said “graduate” while in college. I don’t have a sticker that says “get funded.” Nor do I have a moleskin page that says “get married.” Those are things that I just let happen. Yet, they are indeed ‘to do’s.’ They are goals. They are achievements.
Lately I have been studying alot into gamification. Achievements plays a big role. Reminding a user of goals and rewarding users upon achievements of any scale provides an emotion that catapults that user into attempting to reach the next goal and accomplish the next achievement.
How do you organize what you need to achieve?
How do you remind yourself of goals?
How do you reward your achievements?
Here via Robert Dempsey’s Twitter feed, as I sit with my morning coffee and cross a couple things off yesterday’s list, while choosing the next things for today. I also have a tiny Moleskine book, but mine is full of sketches; I probably need one for list-making, too, since I don’t seem to use my electronic options. I find it easier to simply write.
This is my first encounter with the term “gamification”, but I think I get it: turn the mundane and difficult things into a kind of game, and — unlike the NFL — allow yourself to dance in the endzone when you’ve scored.