1. SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Insights l Tech
from fun to done
can an app make your to-do list seem like child’s play?
Motivation comes from setting concrete
goals that provide meaningful rewards, so our
need to succeed should be enough, right? A new
study in the Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology reports that separating rewards
into categories boosts our willingness to make
an effort, even when those rewards are mean-ingless.
Our fear of missing out on a new and
different kind of reward forces us to keep going.
Stuck in a motivational slump? Here are
four phone apps that leverage the findings to
help you. All apply gamification—game-design
thinking in nongame situations—to make
everyday activities more engaging. They are
proof that by putting a little play in our lives,
we can change our behavior. —Mara Model
ChoreMonster
The Goal Parents assign chores
to a child and designate the
worth of each task in points.
The Reward Chores are boring by
definition—they have to be done,
but kids would always rather be
doing something else. How can
parents motivate children to
attack dish doing and bed mak-ing
with the necessary gusto?
University of Southern California
study coauthor Scott Wilter-muth
explains that the availabil-ity
of different levels of reward
doubles determination. Kids can
use points to buy monsters in
the beginning, and after reach-ing
a certain points threshold,
they unleash a new set of prizes.
Having two exciting groups of
reward available also engages
anticipated regret; children
don’t want to miss out on an
opportunity to win more.
details Free to $4.99/month.
Available for iOS.
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s For info: Turn to page 95 and circle #6
PT0513_Tech_r1.indd 18 22/03/2013 11:07 AM

2. Tech l Insights
How iFeel
Expereal, a new app, aims
to close the gap between
memory and reality.
The Basics. One to five times
a day, Expereal prompts
you to rate your life—at that
particular moment—on a
10-point scale. You can add
tags to specify who you’re
with, where you are, and any
other salient details. The app
plots your daily and weekly
averages and lets you com-pare
yourself to other users.
The Big Idea. Our memory
of an experience tends to be
shaped by how it ends, so
even the most introspective
among us might not have an
accurate sense of how people
and things are influencing our
happiness and mental health.
“My grandest hope,” says
Jonathan Cohen, Expereal’s
creator, “is that taking stock
of our lives on an ongoing
basis might enable us to make
better decisions.”
Details Free. Available for iOS.
Foursquare
The Goal “Checking in” every-where
you go—from school to
the gym to your favorite cafe—
can give even reclusive types the
drive to get out and do things.
The Reward We tend to feel more
motivated to win something
when we’ve already experienced
having it or our friends own it;
that’s why people constantly vie
for the most check-ins, badges,
and mayorships—three different
barometers of an active social
life. But the game is designed so
that it’s easy to lose the ground
you’ve gained. Wiltermuth found
that the fear of missing out on
multiple types of reward has a
positive side—it’s a powerful
incentive. The threat of losing the
title of mayor or placing second
in check-ins encourages players
to get busy on the social circuits.
details Free. Available for iOS,
Android, Blackberry and Win-dows
Phone.
Nike+ Running
The Goal Nike+ manages your
fitness goals by creating exercise
routines, tracking your progress,
and pushing you to surpass your
performance.
The Reward Unlike going to
the gym every day, the app is
designed to give users an imme-diate
sense of progress. For
every move you make and every
mile you run, you gain points—
visibly marking progress. Points
build up to milestones, more seri-ous
markers of success, for which
players are awarded trophies —
news they can share with friends.
Wiltermuth finds that multiple
categories of benefit—various
trophies and social recogni-tion—
enhance commitment. The
finish line looks a lot closer when
you’re making all kinds of prog-ress
along the way.
details Free (basic features).
Available for iOS and Android.
EpicWin
The Goal EpicWin helps procras-tinators
by transforming their
kitchen, living room, or super-market
into a battlefield. They
get to tame their to-do list in an
engaging and graphic way.
The Reward Life’s mundane
activities are first sorted into
high-minded categories—
strength, stamina, intellect,
social, spiritual. For each task
crossed off their list, users gain
gold and loot they can apply
to fortifying their avatars with
weapons. Doing the laundry may
get you clean clothes, but it also
opens multiple pathways to new
in-game goals. Why are we more
motivated to watch our accom-plishments
in virtual rather than
real life? “It’s about our need to
check off boxes,” says Wilter-muth,
“to say you got something
done and will be rewarded for it.”
details $2.99. Available for iOS.
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