Productivity Challenge Timer: A Study in Effective Gamification

If you’re anything like me (God help you), then chances are you’ve tried out a few productivity apps in your day. Maybe you’ve even found one that you like — in which case, why not drop it in the comments? But more likely, you’ve found that for whatever reason, nothing seems to really stick. You know you should (gag) use the Pomodoro technique or whatever, but you just don’t.

These days, managing your own time effectively is the skill of skills. Without being in an office, you don’t even have to pretend to look busy. And the Internet stretches out before you, the golden road of infinite distraction, beckoning you to watch just one more quick YouTube video before you get back to work…

Ah, you poor benighted soul. I was once like you. But that was before I discovered the productivity app to end all productivity apps — Productivity Challenge Timer.

Before I go any further, I should say that, as much as this already sounds like an ad, this post is not sponsored in any way. I’ve given the developer my three bucks or whatever, after several months of using the app to prod myself to greater and greater heights of productivity. But beyond that, I have no connection to the developer. I can just tell you that — thanks to the effective implementation of gamified features — the thing works.

Gamification? Juh?

Gamification, as the name sort of suggests, the process of making something more like a game…