Hello Enthusiastic of Knowledge!
How are you?

A few days ago, I discussed with one of you about the prospect of isolating oneself at home for a month to study for a really important exam.

A sort of two-month hibernation, no phone, no social life.

Different opinions about it.

But what's interesting is that this guy, in order to survive deprived of social life and immersed in studying, was looking for a way to make studying a more enjoyable LIFESTYLE.

I love this topic, so I decided to share with you eight principles to make any boring activity a bit more enjoyable.

(and make sure to read until the end, there is a little surprise for you…😉)

Exactly, let's talk about VIDEO GAMES!

The video game industry excels at making games somehow interesting and entertaining, keeping us glued to the screens for hours.

Years and years of experimentation to turn a little game on the screen into an addiction, infusing fun and engagement in every aspect.

Gamification is precisely the art of using the principles that make video games so entertaining to make the mundane tasks in our everyday lives more intriguing.

Today, we'll look at some of these principles that you can use to make your studying or work more exciting and improve mood and productivity for yourself and those around you.

Gamification - make it fun with Video Games principles

Gamification is the set of principles on which video games are based, making them so motivating, interesting, and fun.

These principles are well explained in a book called "Actionable Gamification," which analyzes what makes video games interesting, and comes up with eight principles.

In studying, as we know, some tasks are simply boring but necessary. However, with Gamification, we can integrate as many of these principles as possible into our study and thus transform those boring tasks into something much more enjoyable, similar to a real video game.

Exactly, we can use the principles of the world's largest entertainment industry to make our study method more rewarding and motivating!

Now let's look at the eight principles of Gamification:

1- Development and Achievement: 

It means feeling a constant sense of progress and advancing to higher levels. In video games, there's always an element of progression, growth, and levelling up, which keeps us motivated to move forward. In studying, we can recreate "levels" in various ways.

For example, in my Notion template for students, I use progress bars for task groups. As you complete tasks and check off boxes, the progress bar indicates your advancement and the percentage completed, giving you the feeling of leveling up.

2- Creativity Enhancement and Feedback: 

It involves stimulating creativity to find more ways to solve the same problem and receive feedback on our performance. In video games, we're encouraged to solve the same problem in different ways, using our creativity, and we receive immediate feedback on our actions.

So, you can leverage this principle by asking yourself: How can I be more creative in this context, and how can I get immediate feedback?

Tasks we often procrastinate on don't always have short-term results, but long-term ones. To shorten the feedback cycles, for example, we can treat exams as a personal game, giving ourselves feedback with mini-tests and feeling capable of improvement.

3- Ownership and Belonging:

It concerns the sense of control over what we do. For example, in video games, we can choose the character we play as (we feel some ownership over our game). There are three ways we can bring ownership into our tasks:

• Ownership of the outcome: Often, we don't have control over what we have to do, such as an exam. But if we take more mental responsibility, we feel a sense of control, and it becomes more enjoyable.

  Ownership of the process: They tell you what you have to do, not how to do it. So you can personalize the process, for example, finding ways to do it creatively.

• Ownership of beliefs: We can own our beliefs by choosing which beliefs to adopt (I have to do it / I can do it).

4- Social Influence and Relationships: 

We have more fun if people in our social group do the same activities with us. For example, studying with friends, even if they're focusing on different tasks, but using the Pomodoro technique (25 minutes of study and 5 minutes break) together.

5- Scarcity: 

We like what we don't have. This principle drives us to desire what is lacking.

6- Unpredictability and Curiosity: 

Not knowing what will happen next. This keeps us interested and eager to find out more.

7- Loss and Avoidance:

It's hard to lose something. For example, you could give a significant amount of money to a friend and get it back only when you finish your tasks.

8- Epic meaning: 

If you make what you do part of something bigger, a mission, it makes the task more motivating, but it's also more challenging to apply.

For this reason, I'm currently working on a new project, very exciting 😉 I'm founding a student community entirely based on Gamification.

Within the community, everyone will learn the techniques I use to make studying effective and enjoyable, as if it were a video game. Each level will introduce new techniques, challenges to progress, study classes, discussions, and much more, all directly applied to your school subjects.

You will learn a method to fall in love with studying while "playing" it. The structure is designed to incorporate all eight principles of Gamification in every possible way, making the experience as enjoyable and useful as possible.

I'm sure you'll love it 😍

The community is not ready yet, but I have a waiting list. If you'd like to be part of it, I'll notify you as soon as it's ready.

The first time, I'll open access ONLY TO 20 PEOPLE, as a sort of trial to make the experience as best as possible.

If you want to be part of these first 20, here's the list👇❤️

Before we wrap up, let me ask you something...

How would your study sessions be if you applied all these principles? And how can you use this principle to better your study method?

Reply and let me know! I look forward to sharing tips, strategies, and experiences with you!

Talk to you soon,

Isa

P.S.: If reading these principles sparked any ideas for the community, feel free to respond to this email. I'll be more than happy to listen to your ideas or requests ❤️