Gamification system to help you develop good habits

Start playing Life Balancer

Table of Contents

Introduction

Not long ago, I was contemplating how to improve the development of beneficial habits while still maintaining the notorious work-life balance. These thoughts led to a new gamification pet project with an ambitious name, Life Balancer . Let’s see, perhaps, Life Balancer will help you turn routine into a game!

The interface and mechanics were inspired in some ways by games like Resident Evil, Disco Elysium, and Baldur's Gate 3.

In this article, I will briefly describe how to use this system. I must clarify that the project is in the very early stages of development, so please forgive the fact that some aspects are somewhat simplified.

Gamification System

It is assumed that the duration of "one game" corresponds to one week of your life. During each such period, you accumulate sessions for your activities, and at the end of the week, you roll the dice to earn money and buy rewards, placing them in your inventory.

Activities and Sessions

Activities are essentially what you would like to do to improve your life and move forward. Typically, we always know what we need to do to improve our lives, but we don't always want to do it or can't do it regularly. For example, it could be "Going to the gym", "Writing a book", or "Developing a project".

Sessions: You may have already noticed that for each activity, you "add" one session using the white plus icon button. You determine the duration of each session yourself (the duration isn’t present anywhere in the interface of Life Balancer), but it is recommended to allocate 30-60 minutes for one session. Every time you dedicate one session to an activity, click the plus button!

You can edit activities by clicking on the gear button in the header. It is essential to mention that none of your personal data will be sent to an external server. All information is stored in your browser (using the LocalStorage API). Also, remember that this also means your current data will not be synchronised when you access the application from another browser or computer.

Accumulate sessions throughout the week. For example, you can dedicate one session to each activity each day. Because of this, it is recommended to set 5-7 sessions for one activity. However, you can set the number of sessions you think is necessary.

Roll the Dice!

Have you accumulated sessions? Roll the dice to earn money!

When you have added at least one session for an activity, you will see the dice roll button. Click it to access the dice roll interface.

To make "playing" more attractive, Life Balancer incorporates an element of randomness when receiving rewards. You may receive a reward, or you may receive nothing. However, the more sessions you accumulate weekly, the higher your chances of getting a reward. You can see the required dice value above the dice. With each roll, you can get a value from 1 to 20 (if you've played DnD-like games, the d20 dice should be familiar).

Upon a successful roll, a certain amount of money will be credited to your account. You can see it in the top-right corner of the main screen.

Rewards and Inventory

How to spend what you've earned? On the main application screen, you can see the "store" area in the bottom-right corner, and items are numbered from 1 to 5, with each subsequent reward costing slightly more. At this stage of the application's development, you are invited to match the rewards you see in the store with your own preferences. What can it be? Anything you desire! Whether you want to eat 3 chocolate bars next week, watch 5 episodes of your favourite TV show, go to the cinema, or take an extra day off and spend it as you please, jot down the meaning of each reward somewhere, and then buy it. You've earned it through hard work!

To purchase a reward, click on it and confirm your choice. The cost of the reward will be deducted from your in-game account.

After you have used your reward (for example, you've eaten all 3 chocolate bars :D), click on it in your inventory to remove it. It is recommended to use all your rewards within a week to start the next week with a clean inventory.

Conclusion

Even the most hardworking of us sometimes need that initial push and time to develop beneficial habits. For some, the principle of "just do it" will work, while others might find a system similar to Life Balancer’s useful. If you have any thoughts, wishes, or find a bug, please write to me at LinkedIn.

By the way, the application is open-source , so if you wish, you can suggest improvements or clone it and customise it to your liking.