up:: [[Gamification MOC]] Tags:: #flow #gamification # How to Gamify Your Life to Enter Flow More Consistently You take a break from writing an essay for school to play one of your favorite games, Civilization 6. You tell yourself it will only be thirty minutes. Suddenly, you’re jettisoned out of your zone by some timer. Is your alarm going off? Whoops. Your "writing break" at 11:00 p.m. turned into a 3 day long gaming abyss. And you had no idea. You entered what many gamers call the flow state, which [[Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi]], defines as a state in which all worldly matters other than the activity you're doing seem to dissipate, and you become fully immersed in the present. During flow, you pay less attention to outside negative anxieties and stressors as your consciousness if filled entirely with the current activity. You have optimal experiences. Wouldn't it be great if we could feel it more? But sadly, procrastinating on your writing gave you a zero for your essay and now you have to work extra hard in school. That means no Civilization 6 and, therefore no flow. This was the situation I was in two years ago. I loved video and board games because I almost always entered flow. While playing games, the anxieties and stressors of school drifted away. It was so enjoyable I could play for upwards of 3 hours a day on a school night. School learning didn’t provide nearly the same level of flow. But with my extra time during the pandemic, I started playing games so much I experienced what Game Scientist Jane McGonigal calls “Gamer Regret;” I began regretting what I was missing out on in the real world. I realized that despite games incredible flow inducing nature, their rewards are superficial compared to real life. As proud as I am of my Pink Suit in H1Z1 that definitely didn't cost me $60 of real-life money, it doesn't lead to any real-life benefit. Similarly, my hundreds of hours building nuclear weaponry as Gandhi in Civilization 6 and even the thousands of hours playing Minecraft bed wars with my friends has no real life translation. Playing games usually can only provide enjoyable experiences. **Life rewards, however, are infinite.** One insight gained from reading like “journey before destination” can last forever. A finished project or deliverable like a edited documentary can form the building blocks of future work and career advancement. And if you are considering a career that requires a degree, you need to show up for your schoolwork. Clearly, we need to find a way to make real life activities more enjoyable, so we don't feel the need to distract ourselves with games. Luckily our time spent playing games wasn’t entirely wasted. Except for my short excursion into Huniepop. Those hours are never coming back. Our time playing games wasn’t wasted because it gives us insight into how to ask the most important question I’m asking more often in my life. If you take away one thing from this video, take away this: **“How can I make this into a game?”** To answer this we can take insight from the games we love by analyzing what makes them so conducive for flow. Then we can apply these differences to real life through the process of gamification, the craft of deriving fun and engaging elements found typically in games and thoughtfully applying them to real-world productive activities. In essence we can make our real life into a game. Imagine a world where every activity is a flow experience? Not just the times we are playing games but also while writing your essay. Every one of your activities come together to provide a beautiful universal state of flow. **You're in the zone all the time.** To learn how we can do this, we're first going to define what a game is, how they foster flow, and then how we can gamify our own lives with these differences in mind to enter flow in the activities, we struggle to find enjoyment in. ### What is a Game? To analyze games for what makes them so conducive to flow, we first need to understand what a game even is. According to Bernard Suit, philosopher and game studier, a game is anything where there is a "voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles." They typically have five things: - A goal (non-trivial and achievable) - Rules (some form of arbitrary externally imposed constraints) - A feedback system (clear unambiguous feedback toward goals) - Voluntary participation - A [[Gameplay loop]] (the core flow of action, progression, reward inside of a game) One easy example is chess. Chess as a game is incredibly simple. And yet, for centuries it has been one of the most consistent creators of flow in anyone who develops a passion for playing it. Mainly, old people who have nothing better to do with their time. The goal is to checkmate the other side's king. The rules define how you can move your pieces to do so. The feedback comes from the other players' movements and your progress towards checkmate. At least I hope there is voluntary participation. And finally, the gameplay loop is formed from each player's individual turn and each chess game as a whole. Almost any game can be assessed through each of these five things. # How do Games Facilitate Entrance Into The Flow State? When I mention games from now on, I want you to assume I'm talking about well-designed games like Civilization 6, Stardew Valley, or The Witcher 3. I'm not talking about something like Fallout 76. It's the great games that facilitate entrance into the flow state and, therefore interest us in this inquiry. To understand how, we need to go through the [[Elements to entering flow]] and see [[Games by their design facilitate entrance into the flow state|how games by their nature fulfill these elements]]. Then we can learn how to apply our insights to our own lives. In his book, [[Flow The Psychology of Optimal Experience]], [[Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi]] defines eight general elements for entering the flow state. I distilled the elements into the framework ACTIONS. I called it this because if you fulfill all of the seven elements of it, you can take any action with confidence it can become a flow experience. **A**ttend (Attend only to information which matters) **C**larify (Create clear completable goals and rules) **T**ao (Stay in the [[Goldilocks zone]]) **I**terate (Receive unambiguous feedback) **O**perate (Sense of control over actions) **N**on-attachment with time (Detachment from time) **S**elf-goal (Foster an [[Autotelic personality]]) Now let's go through each of the elements of ACTIONS and ask [[Games by their design facilitate entrance into the flow state|how most games facilitate their fulfillment]]. While we will go through each element as if it was stand-alone, it's essential to understand that the elements are all highly interconnected and related. I talk about them individually for clarity purposes. ### [[Games foster flow because they facilitate our attention towards them]] ### [[Games foster flow because they have clear completable goals and rules]] ## [[Games foster flow because they keep players in the Goldilocks Zone]] ### [[Games foster flow because they provide immediate unambiguous feedback]] ### [[Games foster flow because they make us feel in control of our actions]] ### [[Games foster flow because they make us feel non-attachment with time]] ### [[Games foster flow because they promote a autotelic self]] ### [[Different people will get varying levels of gameful experience from the same gameful system]] # How Can We Gamify Our Life to Enter Flow More Consistently? Let's go through each of the eight elements of flow and discuss how we can take insight from games to help us enter flow more consistently in real life. ### [[We can gamify our live to enter flow more consistently through attending to our activities]] ### [[We can gamify our life to enter flow more consistently by creating clearer completable goals and rules]] ## [[We can gamify our life to enter flow more consistently by structuring activities to fall into our Goldilocks Zone]] ### [[We can gamify our lives to enter flow more consistently by shortening our feedback loops]] ### [[We can gamify our lives to enter flow more consistently by fostering a sense of control over our actions]] [[We can gamify our lives to enter flow more consistently by developing a non-attachment with time]] [[We can gamify our lives to enter flow more consistently by developing an autotelic personality]] [[We can gamify our lives to enter flow more consistently by understanding our unique playstyle]] ### Creating a Universal State of Flow Through Cultivating Meaning in One's Experience [[How to create a universal state of flow through cultivating meaning in ones experiences|To achieve a universal state of flow you have to cultivate meaning in your experiences]]. Without cultivating meaning, the flow state can be a vessel of incredible evil or meaninglessness. Consider the Romans who entered flow regularly while watching brutal battles in the Roman Colosseum. Or a modern-day store owner that gets into flow while tricking their shoppers into a good price. Or us using video games as a way to escape from real life. While these people can reach flow in these morally questionable activities, they struggle to reach flow outside of them. This is because they don't have a unifying goal to structure their attention around, breaking element 1 and 2. To create a universal state of flow, you need to cultivate meaning in all of your experiences. This requires setting goals and rules with a purpose in mind and then acting on them. For me, some of my highest-order goals right now are to help people use gamification to live more enjoyable, passionate, and productive lives and to help people reignite their curiosity and joy for learning through Obsidian notetaking. I do this through creating content on my YouTube channel, blog, newsletter, podcast, and through physical teaching. In addition, I'm currently studying at Cornell University to pursue a PhD in Human Development. These two high order goals help me create unity in my experience by giving me a structure for my attention. At first, the goals you set to do this justify the efforts, but soon enough, the efforts begin to justify the goals. This creates a beautiful scenario in which you don't have to succeed to feel [[Meaning MOC]]; you just have to feel you gave your best effort at reaching the goal. But goals aren't the only way you can cultivate meaning in experience. Creating a moral framework and expressing it through your daily actions is another way you can create meaning. For example, one of my biggest values is playfulness. A couple of days ago, I cooked dinner for my family by blowtorching a duck with my only clothes being a kitchen apron. Why? Because according to me, "cooking with no shirt increases the taste of the food by 51% and increases gains." Even though this didn't align with my goals from earlier just expressing my playful value gave the activity meaning. By structuring your attention around high-order goals and rules, you can reach a beautiful state in which every one of your activities is a bringer of [[Optimal experiences|optimal experiences]]. Your consciousness stops being constantly filled with negative thoughts and ruminations. You drift throughout your day in a beautiful flow state of flow. Your whole life starts to feel like one big game. And it all comes back to the question we started this video with. If there is one question you take away from this script it’s “how can I make this into a game. You can implement the ideas from this video by downloading the Notion exercise sheet in the description. It will take you through guiding questions to help you gamify your life in all nine areas of flow, as well as cultivate meaning in your experience. [Also be sure to check out my three part series on How I Gamified My Life To Enjoy Learning/Studying.](https://www.aidanhelfant.com/how-can-we-use-gamification-to-improve-our-lives-part-1/) In part 1 I go through why games are so engaging, in part 2 I explain the differences between games and real life and how we can gamify our own life to be more engaging, and in part 3 I literally make my life into a game by going through Yu Kai Chou's 10,000 hours of play article.