Category Archives: Self-Gamification

Self-gamification is the application of game design elements to one’s own life.
Self-gamification is a self-help approach showing you how to be playful and gameful.
In self-gamification, you are both the designer AND the player of your games.

5 Minute Perseverance Game and Writing Something New

September 1, 2017Self-Gamification, Uncategorizedvica

For me as a self-publishing author, writing books is always connected to:

Writing of the first draft
Self-editing
Professional edit and revision after that
Preparing and releasing for publication
Marketing

Each of these five areas contains multiple sub-tasks as well. Today, I will concentrate on the writing of the first draft.

Sometimes when I tell other writers about the 5 Minute Perseverance Game and that I use it for writing, I am met with a version of the following reaction, “I can’t write for only 5 minutes a day. I need an hour to find back into the thinking process of writing. To find back into my work-in-project.”

That made me ask myself whether I need a longer time to think of a subject or whether can I rely on intuition and just continue writing whatever comes on any given project.

I wrote all of my projects in bits and pieces making progress on a daily or weekly basis. There was not a single of the now ten published books for which I wrote the first draft from beginning to end every day or most of the day in a month or so. And I always have many projects in parallel even if I don’t take all of them into the 5 Minute Perseverance Game.

There have been various paces to each of the writing projects too. Some of them I wrote a few sentence or paragraphs s every day, and one of them I wrote one chapter per week, writing most of that chapter on one day, editing and posting on my blog on the other. Some of the contemplation on each chapter went on before writing and often ended up being different from what I planned or fantasized while taking a shower. This project was a novelette called “Nothing Is As It Seems” which originated from a writing prompt by my dear friend, writing teacher, and best-selling author, Menna van Praag.

Recently as I updated back-matter of the “Nothing is as It Seems.” I skimmed through its pages and noticed that there are some gaps in this novelette that could have been enhanced, for example, more dialog between siblings, the main character revealing more of her side of the story and not only what she was after. I wonder if I could have caught this if I would write the book in one piece instead once a week.

My guess today is that have I written it a little bit every day, my memory could have been more fresh between the writing sessions, and there would be fewer gaps in the story.

But this will remain a guess since I never tried this other option with the same story. For that latter case, I can only report on the other books and writing projects.

Let’s take the latest or rather the current one. I mean this article. I write it a few minutes every day. And I realize that even in case of everyday writing I need a few seconds to recall what this project is about. A few seconds, not minutes or hours. As I used to think before. And what else is important, it is to get immersed in the project during these seconds. To be fully present. Then mere moments become enough to take the thread where I left it and continue.

But also when I wrote “Nothing Is As It Seems” I did something similar, I read the previous chapter and some times several chapters before drafting the next time. Because of a longer gap (a week) and whirl of the thoughts on the project during this gap, I had to spend more than seconds to recall where I left the story the previous time. Every time there was a different mood, a different atmosphere which colored the chapter I was writing. The contemplations before sitting in front of my computer and the plans or rather fantasies of how the chapter would turn out rarely, or rather, never turned out as I pictured them when I took a shower or did something else. The text became a reality when I wrote it during those hours I spent in front of my laptop monitor and typing on its keyboard on that particular weekday.

I finished the first draft of the “Nothing Is As It Seems” before I wrote “5 Minute Perseverance Game” and before I started playing it regularly. But I have used the game to publish the novelette. More on this and using the game for other publishing projects in another post.

I’ve tested the 5 Minute Perseverance Game in respect to writing many times. And I will probably be doing this as long as I write since it turned out to be the least stressful and the most efficient approach to my writing.

But two of these times were my first ones. The very first time was when my dear friend and writing teacher, Menna van Praag, suggested to her students including me to play it so we could make progress with our writing projects. During the time of about a year where, we all attended Menna’s telephone seminars, and we all met on the internet in a Facebook group organized by Katrin Bauck, another dear friend, amazing artist, children’s writer, and Menna’s student too. The group had a beautiful name “Passionate Writers.” At one of the seminars, as many of us complained not finding time to write, Menna suggested to write 5 minutes a day for the work-in-progress and then report to the group how it went. All who participated in the call that day said yes to the challenge, including Menna. I remember making tremendous progress and loving the process of just writing. I realized that when you have only 5 minutes to write, this is what you do. You just write. You don’t contemplate too long what to write. You just do it.

Later I had what people call a writer’s block again. It was fear of the final results and what would people say, and other thoughts of that manner. Several months into this block I remembered the game suggested by Menna and how I felt during it. So I started writing again, writing in small bits every day and also asked my fellow writers how they were doing.

This and support by many wonderful cheerleaders helped me finish that book.

The second “first” time was when I moderated a round of this game for the first time. My friends at the Black Label Writers’ Club in Aalborg — which you guessed correctly was named after a whiskey brand; I heard that they had a bottle of it at their first meeting; therefore the name — have asked me once how I managed to pursue several different writing and non-writing projects at the same time. As I was sharing my experience, I suddenly recalled the game and suggested to play it within our club. I volunteered to create a dedicated Facebook Group for it and to moderate the game rounds.

A little into the game round, another friend, and writer, as well as an award-winning YA (Young Adult) fantasy author in Denmark, Sascha Christensen, sent me the following personal message: “The comment you made at the writers’ panel helped break my writer’s block.”

The comment she mentioned was one of my all-time favorite quotes, which I don’t know who said it for the first time. I have heard it in many variations from different people but never in my preferred form.

Here is how I like this quote most:

“You can’t edit an empty page.”

After saying “No problem” and “You are very welcome” to Sascha, and after chatting a while and exchanging on author’s challenges, I suggested her to join us in our perseverance game. After listening, or rather reading out what the rules of the game were, she agreed to play.

She commented time to time on the results and wrote, “Man, this concept is actually really effective for me. :D”

In one of the following rounds of the game, she let us in the group know that she finished the manuscript and sent to her publisher.

That was a fantastic result and reward for me to keep on playing the game and sharing my experience.

I had my own revelation during the game. I have written six thousand words in a book within a month while writing just 5 minutes, sometimes a bit more, at times a bit less, a day. On a few days of that month I didn’t manage to write, but on the most I did. Such a tempo would mean that with just a handful minutes a day I would manage to write about 70000 words within one year, which is enough material for a short novel or at least a novella.

That experience and the wisdom about an empty page shared with Sascha has revealed again and again the magic and power of just creating without too much contemplation about the process, not only in the writing projects but even in those of technical nature. But more on this in some of the future posts.

The sub-tasks of writing the first draft

Working on the first version of a book or article means for me the actual writing that is putting new words onto a page. But sometimes it also includes research, that however kept at the minimum as not to procrastinate from the actual writing, and of course the pre-edit. This pre-edit, as I call it, occurs before the self-edit and way before the professional edit. The pre-edit is happening (and I often omit it) between the writing sessions, which in my case are short, but sweet. The primary purpose of this pre-edit is just to remind myself where I stopped the project the previous time, make a note or a mini-edit here and there if I noticed something to be fixed already at this stage.

With time I realized that the session of the actual writing became sweeter and more fun when I stopped at the right moment. When the chunk of writing was done. Like a mini-story or a self-contained message “solidifying” itself on the screen or paper. But this stopping at the right moment often also includes for me writing a teaser for the next scene or chapter. Like a prompt for the next session. If I am not mistaken, that was what Hemingway did when he finished for the day. I read that he always started a new chapter or scene to make it easier for him to continue his writing the next day. By that, he tricked out the famous “writer’s block” and the empty-page fright.

When the job is done or how big should the job be?

There is nothing to compare to the feeling when the job is done. For the day or in general. And it is quite curious that we humans tend to want to make everything big, and to see everything huge being as the best: our houses, our cars, our achievements and even tasks. So the bigger the job, we think, then the greater satisfaction when we finish it.

But interestingly enough when we are happy, then we are happy. There is no happier than before. We are just excited and thrilled and blissful. Often by the time we achieve the big task (if we ever do, since the fear of failing a big task is much too overwhelming and pressing down), we are so exhausted and unhappy that we don’t have enough energy to celebrate.

However, after achieving something small and taking time to celebrate it, by giving oneself a point, a praise, a smile, we are most probably to have the energy, and it boosts us to do the next step.

The kaizen approach, which I mentioned introduced in the article “The 5 Minute Perseverance Game and Kaizen” is all about little steps, and “small moments.” That is how Robert Maurer, the author of the book “One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way,” and who employed kaizen both for private and corporate clients, names these small and often ignored events.

In the chapter titled “Identify Small Moments,” he writes:

“The kaizen approach to life requires a slower pace and an appreciation of small moments. This pleasant technique can lead to creative breakthroughs and strengthened relationships, and give you a daily boost toward excellence.”

When it comes to writing, this is what makes it most exquisite to read. It is when you as a reader enjoy each moment, each word, each paragraph the writer puts on the page, and realize that it comes from the author’s enjoyment to create those paragraphs of text.

So, let’s savor each small step, each bit we write. Let’s let our fingers fly over the keyboard and find out in surprise that, in the short time we spent there, we wrote ten, twenty, a hundred, or a thousand words. And then let’s marvel. Did I write this just now?

What are your opinion and experience? Did you try to observe yourself when you write in bigger or smaller chunks per day? How does your experience of fun and stress change depending on how long you spend on writing a particular scene or project? Did you ever let yourself be satisfied and praise you for writing one paragraph?

What is this blog series about? You can find this out in its first blog post called “5 Minute Perseverance Game – Moving my Favorite Game to my Writing Blog.”

On the picture above: A view on a small flower meadow between cozy houses in a not far from where we live in Aalborg. This colorful mixture of all kinds of flowers reminded me of the crazy mixture of moments I have every day, also in writing. And in each other moment or angle from which I consider them, they appear to me differently.

***

And now on how my 5 Minute Perseverance Game (5MPG) has progressed in August and my plans (including the game design) for September.

Results for the round August 2017 of the 5MPG: 262 points out of 651 possible, which is 40% that is less than in previous months.

Conclusions as seen today: too ambitious planning, unrealistic plans on how many projects can be pursued on a daily basis, a wish to relax more and take it slow (apparently, a positive outcome of the vacation 🙂 ), a tendency and a desire to concentrate more on one project during any given day.

Plans and game design for the September 2017 round of the 5 Minute Perseverance Game:

I have identified eight areas, each of them contains several projects or tasks. These are:

Voluntary work for S1000D community (primarily for the Business Rules Working Group)
Tools’ page content development for optimistwriter.com
Non-fiction writing on various topics, including two books (one on business one on motivation and self-gamification), and blog post writing
Fiction and Memoir writing (three books: two are fiction, and one is a collection of memoir essays)
Marketing of Books, Tools, and Training Material (includes update, and publishing)
Training Courses content development
Admin work (incl. family matters, documents, business/home office matters, household)
Free time, fun, health, and movement (including playing with and drawing for my children (they like little drawings under their dinner plates), reading, meeting friends, doing something for my body (like Yoga, dancing, other), straight posture, 7 hours sleep, etc.)

Differences from past months and new rules for the September round of the 5 Minute Perseverance Game:

There can be more than one project or activities for each of the eight areas or types of activities.
If I get to attend to at least one project in each field of any given day, then I get two additional points as a bonus. For each full set of eight points (one for each area of those defined, above) I get two additional points.
If I finish a project or a large task resulting in external delivery, such as sending a manuscript to an editor or publishing a blog post or similar, then apart from getting a regular point for doing the task, I get five bonus points.
I can get more than one point for the same area, and even the same project on any given day. The condition here is that I get the point when a certain amount of work is done, and I change the activity. The change of the activity either I work a different project within the same area or work on a project from a different area, and then come again to the previous project.
I can decide by myself which of the project to address in any given area on any particular day. It has to do with external and my own deadlines.
The time depends on the project, and on the activities of the given project. It can be ten seconds, often five minutes, but sometimes in exceptional circumstances even an hour. In general, a step should be self-contained, small (regarding its logic), doable and make sense.

I will report on this new design variant of the 5 Minute Perseverance Game in the coming article on this topic. The article will be how I experience this game during self-edits and revision of my work.

When You Gamify Your Life, You Not Only Play the Game, but You also Design It*

August 1, 2017Self-Gamificationvica

Here is the main lesson learned in July’17 Round of my 5 Minute Perseverance Game.
I realized that I needed to write one more article before I was going into details of various use cases of self-gamification in my work and personal life.

And this article is about the necessity to be interested in the game-design.

If you, for example, are a manager and gamify the processes at work, then you will design games to motivate your colleagues and co-workers to carry out a task. When you gamify your life, you need to develop the games for yourself.

The interest in game design can, in fact, come naturally, and without effort. We all tried to bend the rules in our favorite games when we were children, or also later. We had that question looming over our heads was, “What if we play it another way?”

Sometimes we found that our changes made the games we played, even more, fun, and sometimes less.

So, we are natural game-designers. We might just not be aware of that.

Right after deciding to write the book “5 Minute Perseverance Game”, I started reading various books on game design. These books were later joined by books on gamification and Kaizen.

In Brian Tinsman’s book “The Game Inventor’s Guidebook: How to Invent and Sell Board Games, Card Games, Role-playing Games & Everything in Between!”, I saw the following passage about Richard Garfield, the inventor of the game “Magic: The Gathering”:

“For years, Richard had been playing around with ideas for a game that was ‘bigger than what came in the box.’ Drawing inspiration from a classic science-fiction strategy game called Cosmic Encounter, he envisioned a game that set up rules, then let every card in the game break them in different ways. Further, no player would really know all the powers every card might have — players would constantly be surprised. Only a genius could bridge the gap between imagining such a game and actually designing it. ‘I had no idea if such a game could be designed.’ Richard recalls, ‘But I decided to give it a shot.’”

“Wow,” I thought, “Isn’t it what a successful manager, a great boss, a brilliant entrepreneur, or an amazing project manager is? A genius who can bridge the gap between having an idea for a product, service, or business or personal development and doing it and demonstrating how this can be done? And aren’t our daily lives at work (and at home) the games having certain rules but with so many surprises breaking almost each of the rules?”

After I realized that, I sat there for a few seconds with an open mouth. I was in a public place when I had this epiphany, so I hurried to close my mouth and take on a nonchalant look as soon as I observed what I was doing.

A bit later I understood that the more I considered my work as a strategic game the more creative, and the more serious about the task I became. Truly serious, that is without drama but with utter concentration and attention for the task at hand. I’ve discovered a new (seeming) paradox for myself. The more I considered my work as a game and took with that care that I had fun while attending to my duties, the more diligent and efficient I became.

Here is the list of reasons why I think everyone should learn how to design games:

Saying it with words of a chapter title in Brian’s Tinsman’s book on the game design, where he addressed one of the reasons why someone would want to develop a game, “It’s Fun.”
You’ll relax, and the task at hand will lose that dramatic scent we all are perfumed with when we take our lives and our work much too seriously.
You will have a glimpse into an incredibly fun and — in an inspiring way — strange industry, a magic land of its own.
You might find out how your favorite games were designed and by that learn a little about yourself and why you like them.
You might also find a connection between your favorite board or computer games and the job you are doing.
You’ll discover new ideas and be inspired to create your own ideas for the task at hand or your team.
Your newly won playful manner will make the people around you smile.
You’ll relax and be more and more pleasure to work and be with.
There will be less drama when something unexpected happens. You’ll be simply immersed in making the best possible next step of the game. In other words, you will be efficiently searching for a solution and realize it without wasting time on complaining of how the life turned out.
You will enjoy the time and project management because you will recognize what these previously annoying and routine tasks of time, project and self-management are, that they are the components of your own game-design. And suddenly, you’ll have fun attending to them.
And much more.

Another interesting thing I realized in July was that there was so far not a single round in the past fourteen months I play this game that I lost to my procrastination. Even in summer holidays. And a mirrored realization: I have not won it to zero either. Somehow I feel good about this. That is what probably a balanced life is: a constant improvement and also always enough space for further development, even if that space is organized sub- or fully consciously by my brain.

That also means I can also relax and become less critical about my abilities to design my own game. Or to worry, what is right and what is wrong when I plan a round. I can simply discover what ideas I have for every new game round, even if they might seem to repeat themselves. Because in truth they never repeat themselves, since every round, every project, every moment is new and shines in a new light if I only choose so.

So here are the results for July’17 round, which mainly consisted of fun, health and slowing down projects:

Do something for fun, which is neither reading nor writing. -> 29 points out of 31 possible
Develop content for “Tools” page on my site. -> 15 points out of 31 possible
Finish “Cheerleading for Writers” / Work further on memoir collection “Everywhere at Home.” -> 11 points out of 31 possible
Draft blog posts for Writing (especially, 5 Minute Perseverance Game), S1000D, and Business Rules. -> 11 points out of 31 possible
Reading about, brainstorming, or acting on book (and other) marketing, publishing, writing craft improvement. -> 12 points out of 31 possible
Sleeping at least 6.5 hours per night. -> 21 points out of 31 possible
Straight posture for at least 10 seconds a day. -> 31 points out of 31 possible
Sports, workout, or dance (at least two exercises). -> 29 points out of 31 possible
Read a book in Danish. -> 8 points out of 31 possible
Read a paperback book. -> 22 points out of 31 possible

Results Total for July 2017: 189 points out of 310 possible = 61 %.

With this report for July, I am stopping a detailed report on my projects. I will continue to play on multiple projects and report on the total points and the lessons learned. I realized that it might be hard for you to understand the details of each project I take into the game without an additional load of information. In order not to tire you, I will just share the lessons learned and epiphanies gathered along the way.

I also avoided reporting on lessons learned from each project in July. Instead, I will make a summary of the experience gained for each of my use cases of the 5 Minute Perseverance Game.

I will also post this material now on a more rare basis: about once a month. Again, in order not to tire you, but also to be able to provide content in other areas, I am working on.

For August, I am taking 21 projects into the game, of which 10 are concrete projects (as writing a certain book), and 11 are repeatable activities such as volunteer work, to develop a habit or to relax (exercising, keeping straight posture, taking care of the household and other).

References in this article:
* A part of this post’s content has been published in a slightly different form in an earlier blog post titled “Business Epiphanies: Managers Should Play Games and Learn How to Design Them.”

What is your opinion? Do you agree or disagree with the idea above that everybody should get some skills or at least a notion of game design? And why?

On the picture above: I discovered the results of this hobby project last Sunday as I walked downtown Aalborg past a hobby store with my family and friends. This large picture of a fairy tale princess made out of iron beads struck me with a beauty and realization: it was also done step-by-step, bead-by-bead. Most of the hobby projects take time and are often realized by taking small steps. Our satisfaction with the progress and sometimes sharing and showing the results to others are our rewards. And most of the time, there is no drama, no problem when we plan and realize the project. There is no fuss. Just the knowledge that we are doing it for fun and that we love what we do. So what would happen if we would treat any job, any task at hand at least a little bit as if it was one of our hobby projects?

What is this blog series about? You can find this out in its first blog post called “5 Minute Perseverance Game – Moving my Favorite Game to my Writing Blog.”

Importance of Having a Good Overview in a Game – Lesson Learned during the June Round of the 5 Minute Perseverance Game (as well as Plans for July)

July 3, 2017Self-Gamificationvica

Another month of open gamification of my life went by. I’ve played and learned a lot during this past month. Some projects in June (see the list below) were concrete projects, but many were generic activities. I found it sometimes challenging to distinguish among what I did during the day and attribute that to one or another activity taken into the game. For example, I found that some tasks could be assigned both to “Book marketing” and “Pitching new projects.”

My eagerness to gather as many points as possible led me to take more and more projects into a monthly round of the game. I wanted to challenge myself and see if I can achieve more. Well, this is typical for lives, and this is also standard for games. We always want to step up to the next level.

I might have jumped, thought, a little too high this past month. I did gather in total more points than in May (271 in June and 236 in May), but was that the goal? Or was the goal to manage the higher fraction of the projects I have taken over for the given month. Because if so, then I did worse. In May, I earned 69% of all possible points, and in June 60%. I can’t say how well my performance was in the months preceding May of this year because before that I haven’t analyzed my performance in the 5 Minute Perseverance Game as I did in the past few months. In the coming months and with more recordings, the picture will become clearer.

But the question about the goal of the game started occupying me. I thought having fun was the main aim. And it is. But I also noticed that I had to have a good overview of the game plan. Otherwise, I become overwhelmed and start having less fun. So stepping on a too high of a level might reduce the fun.

This need for a good overview is important in any game. I remember how in a board game where you build a map of a country with cards, I used to lose overview and become pretty restless as I noticed hanging more and more behind my rivals. And I also remember how I was having less and less fun in such situations.

So, taking on too many projects can reduce fun.

What is then the right number of projects for me?

I looked at my game book (see the picture above) for months preceding May and found that I didn’t take on more than ten projects. In April I even had only seven in that round. But I seemed not to have enough and took eleven in May and in June even fifteen.

There were many days when I was frustrated that I wasn’t getting “enough” points, “enough” probably meaning all, although I would probably not want to admit that on any of those days. I do now.

The question I have for myself today is, do I really need to gamify every activity I carry out every day? Even if only theoretically? In practice, it is impossible to do so because I can’t foresee at the beginning of the month (when I plan each round) what surprising commitments might arise in the middle or end of a month. But is it even important?

Yes, I did discuss before that even private projects might work well when gamified, become gratifying and fun both in recognition of what we do but also in making unlikable tasks fun. But do I have to take every single repeatable activity into the game? I don’t do it already today. There are things, which I do organically, like taking a shower, brushing teeth or preparing myself a cup of Espresso. I don’t give myself points for those activities, even if some of them might sound unusual for other people.

No, a game is about taking on a challenge. A manageable challenge, but a challenge nonetheless. OK, brushing teeth might appear a challenge at times, but I am not talking about those cases.

Now, I have it! I am speaking here about a fun challenge. Just as the Bob the Builder in the famous children’s cartoon asks, “Can we make it?”, I find myself curious about whether I can make some of the tasks, which at first glance seem daunting. My competitive spirit awakes and shouts cheerfully, “Yes, I can!”

The best thing about the 5 Minute Perseverance Game and its rounds go for a month, is that I can adjust my strategy for the next move or phase in the game as I want to, without attributing too much drama to what I managed or not during the previous month. I can just try out various strategies and adjust them along the way. Approaching time management as a game, was one of the best and gratifying discoveries I made in the past two months of blogging on self-gamification.

So for July, I have a new challenge for myself: to slow down, to relax and simply have fun. I am still taking a few work (including writing) projects into this round, but these are my favorite and doing them relaxes and entertains me.

Below are the results for June round of the 5 Minute Perseverance Game and my plans for the July round, with a few words why I am taking on one or another project/activity.

Results for June for each of the project (in points and percentage):

Working on new Projects: 26 points out of 30 possible = 87%
Cheerleading for Writers -> self-edits: 17 points out of 30 possible = 57%
BRWG CPF work (voluntary work in a professional community): 5 points out of 30 possible = 17%
BRWG Admin work and other S1000D work (voluntary work in a professional community): 6 points out of 30 possible = 20%
Book update and marketing: 22 points out of 30 possible = 73%
5 Minute Perseverance Game Blogging: 26 points out of 30 possible = 87%
S1000D and Business blog: 9 points out of 30 possible = 30%
Learning Danish: 9 points out of 30 possible = 30%
Learning Chinese: 7 points out of 30 possible = 23%
Meeting and communicating with friends and family: 25 points out of 30 possible = 83%
Family and personal (official) matters: 20 points out of 30 possible = 67%
Household and un-cluttering (including the hard disk on my computer): 19 points out of 30 possible = 63%
Sports or workout (at least 1 exercise): 30 points out of 30 possible = 100%
Sleeping at least 6 hours per night: 20 points out of 30 possible = 67%
Doing something purely for fun: 30 points out of 30 possible = 100%

Projects for July 2017:

Do something for fun, which is neither reading nor writing.
Reading and Writing comes very naturally to me, but I must admit that my eyes and my brain need sometimes to switch off from the pages patterned with letters. Images, views, or objects having nothing to do with text (like beads out of which I made two bracelets for my children yesterday) are the welcome but also challenging break. Challenging because if you ask me what I do to relax, my automatic reply is, “Read a book.” Even putting this activity in the first place for the list of projects in this round was a challenge. 🙂
Develop content for “Tools” page on my site.
This task is work, but more like a riddle-solving-game and I simply love it. Especially, because I realize that the results of it will be used by other people, who asked for it.
Finish “Cheerleading for Writers” / Work further on memoir collection “Everywhere at Home.”
I sent “Cheerleading for Writers” to my editor on July 1st, so the rest of the month in this project will be devoted to my friends Marcy’s and my memoir collection, which I call “Everywhere at Home.” I am quite excited about selecting stories and drafting new ones for this book, which I am going to publish next year. A happy gamer (that is me) can report today that she had a great idea for the structure of this book, which was not quite clear until now.
Draft blog posts for Writing (especially, 5 Minute Perseverance Game), S1000D, and Business Rules.
Since I won’t manage to stop my brain from thinking about the future, then I could use its drive creatively and let it come up with ideas for the content which I will post in the future for you.
Reading about, brainstorming, or acting on book (and other) marketing, publishing, writing craft improvement.
I find myself very insatiable after learning and brainstorming on something new. And since I would like to improve my book marketing habits and possibly also try my foot in traditional publishing, then I want to learn about it as much as I can during this month. Articles saved and printed, books downloaded. Now it is time to learn. Summer holidays are perfect for this purpose. Even during my school years, I remember being more eager to study during summer break than during the regular school days.
Sleeping at least 6.5 hours per night.
I’m trying to increase the time here as I noticed that my idea of not needing much more than 6 hours a day of sleep didn’t confirm. I found my usual headaches recede after a longer sleep night. Even if I was very reluctant to see this at first. So now I am challenging myself to sleep a half an hour longer each night. From the first three nights in July, I managed to do this only once. So this is definitely a challenge. But I am up to it.
Straight posture for at least 10 seconds a day.
I’m standing or walking around like a question mark. I tried several times to straighten my posture once and for all, but it never worked. So now I call for help kaizen and the minute-or-so-perseverance game for help. The task this month is to manage at least 10 sec a day to sit, stand or walk straight during another activity. I am doing it now and earning my first points this month. 🙂
Sports, workout, or dance (at least two exercises).
I am moving here to the next level by adding one more exercise since this activity was very successful in June (100 % done).
Read “Heksens Arving,” a book in Danish by a friend and award-winning YA fantasy writer Sascha Christensen.
I would like to improve my Danish, also because I will teach in September two training courses in it. And what is a better way to improve one’s language than by reading a book written by a good friend?
Read a paperback book.
I usually read on my Kindle, but I have many paperback books which I wanted to read and then give them further because I usually don’t keep books. I like sharing them. So, I would like to support a habit which will with time make some of our bookshelves a bit lighter.

I will be posting less during the summer vacation in July. However, I will continue playing the game and report about at the end of the month. I will recommence my work end of July, as well as blogging.

If you play this or any other game, then have fun with it, and all you do.

What is your opinion? What is the primary factor that helps you keep an overview of all your projects and activities? Is it also fun? Or is it something else? And why?

On the picture above: My score sheet for June 2017. Just recording and counting the points is already fun, and then seeing the results is simply uplifting.

What is this blog series about? You can find this out in its first blog post called “5 Minute Perseverance Game – Moving my Favorite Game to my Writing Blog.”

And now on how my 5 Minute Perseverance Game (5MPG) is progressing for various projects:

Results for days 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 of the round June 2017 of the 5MPG: 10, 10, 10, 9, 9, points out of 15 possible for each day.

Results for days 1 and 2 of the round July 2017 of the 5MPG: 10 and 9 points out of 10 possible for each day.

Results Total for the week 26 (end of June and beginning of July) 2017: 48+19=67 out of 75+20=85 possible (79 %)

Results Total for June 2017: 271 points out of 450 possible = 60 %. That is more points than in May but less percentage of what I managed of the total possible.

The 5 Minute Perseverance Game and Kaizen

June 26, 2017Self-Gamificationvica

The traditional way of learning a new skill is first to learn about it then try it out. This approach applies to learning how to drive, how to play various games, how to use a computer. Of course, there are exceptions, and the 5 Minute Perseverance Game was such an exception for me.

After having played it for more than a year, I am still learning about it. I have discovered recently that there is some fundamental wisdom to why it is working.

One of these pearls of wisdom known for a long time is Kaizen.

Here are some definitions of Kaizen:

“Japanese term for a gradual approach to ever higher standards in quality enhancement and waste reduction, through small but continual improvements involving everyone from the chief executive to the lowest level workers. Popularized by Masaaki Imai in his books ‘Kaizen: The Key To Japan’s Competitive Success.’” *
“Kaizen (改善?), is the Japanese word for “continual improvement.” In business, kaizen refers to activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. It also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross organizational boundaries into the supply chain. It has been applied in healthcare, psychotherapy, life-coaching, government, banking, and other industries.” **

I didn’t know about kaizen when I first played the game, which I would later call the 5 Minute Perseverance Game. In fact, I wasn’t searching for it to understand why the game was so much fun for me. I just played it and had fun.

An activity that always been fun to me since my school and university years is reading. So it was reading, or rather a curiosity about a book that did the trick.

I lived in Denmark (as I also do today) and was about to start a project for a big Danish company on behalf of another Danish company. So when I heard of a seminar called “Danish Workplace Culture,” I immediately wanted to attend it. The workshop was fun, valuable, and eye-opening in many respects. The seminar instructor reminded me of a book, of which I’ve heard previously but forgot to check it out. The anecdotes the instructor shared from the book ignited my interest to such an extent that I checked on the book as soon as I was back home that day. I downloaded a sample, and a short time later, I bought it.

The book is “The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country” *** by Hellen Russel. In it, a British journalist reports on her experience of settling in a country with a different mentality and working culture from the one she grew up and learned. And the title of the book says it all: it is about understanding why the Danes are so happy and well in themselves, even if they have some of the un-coziest weather conditions in the world.

I loved the book so much that I checked whether Hellen had written some other books too. And she did. Her second book is titled “Leap Year: How to make big decisions, be more resilient and change your life for good” ****. The book is as fun and as revealing as the first one written by Hellen. However, the chapter with the title “Finance — Go Money On My Mind” rang the loudest bell for me.

This chapter is where I first learned about kaizen and how the philosophy of small steps can improve any area of life including personal finances. At least, this is what Hellen applied it to. Hellen learned about kaizen from Dr. Robert Maurer, Director of Behavioral Sciences for the Family Practice Residency Program at Santa Monica, UCLA Medical Center and a faculty member at the UCLA School of Medicine, whom she interviewed for this chapter of the book.

I kept coming back in my mind to the concept of kaizen and the fact that it seemed to be so well proven and well-used approach, but still so little heard of. I decided to make a search kaizen at the largest online book retailer. The first book that appeared and seemed to be most purchased and most liked was “One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way” written by the same person, whom Hellen Russel has interviewed for her book. Robert Maurer was the one who wrote it and several other popular books on small steps and kaizen.

I downloaded a sample of the “One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way” and started to read. I couldn’t stop at first. Only the necessity for a sleep and family and other commitments calling helped me stopped reading. As I read the book, a realization came, again and again, that this is what I am doing with my 5 Minute Perseverance Game. I am applying kaizen.

Here is how Robert summarizes his book “One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way”:

“The succeeding chapters are devoted to the personal application of kaizen and encompass six different strategies. These strategies include:

asking small questions to dispel fear and inspire creativity
thinking small thoughts to develop new skills and habits — without moving a muscle
taking small actions that guarantee success
solving small problems, even when you’re faced with an overwhelming crisis
bestowing small rewards to yourself or others to produce the best results
recognizing the small but crucial moments that everyone else ignores.”

When I looked at this list I saw that the 5 Minute Perseverance Game answer with a Yes to each of the above, including the information in the introductory sentence:

I apply the 5 Minute Perseverance Game to myself. I self-gamify my life. So it is a personal application.
When given only with a short amount of time (5 minutes, for example) to address a task, I can only ask myself small questions.
The thinking of “small thoughts” occurs all by itself, as I move further from the beginning of any game round. At the start of a month, when I start a project (or a phase of a project) I do still think “big thoughts.” But the limited time again comes to help, and every day it becomes easier and easier for me to make the next move in the game, and the thoughts about it become smaller and smaller, quieter and quieter, and by that more and more pleasant.
Again the 5 (or less or a bit more) minutes limit the actions that can be taken.
The brilliance of a short time allows addressing only the small problems.
The points I give myself are the small rewards, and I discovered that gathering and counting them, as well as the seemingly hard work and challenge to gather as more of the points as possible, brings much more fun than supposedly big rewards of recognition by someone else.
Limited time helps me to concentrate on the given moment because I want to make this little step work, otherwise, I get no point. With this, I notice more and more the small moments, small events on the way. And the project becomes an enjoyable process and path, instead of being a goal, something to be finished with.

It is amazing to discover that something you do and have fun with, appears to be based on a fundamental and well-tested wisdom. It feels empowering and reassuring.

I am grateful to have discovered about kaizen and gamification, and that unknowingly to myself I have applied both simultaneously to my life.

Inspired by Robert Maurer’s approach in his book “One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way,” in a number of the following posts I will consider various examples and scenarios where the 5 Minute Perseverance Game can be applied.

What is your opinion? Robert Maurer compares small steps (kaizen) to large steps (which he calls innovation). Which do you think are more efficient to address a challenge: small or big steps? When and why?

On the picture above: Plants are amazing kaizen masters. Their gradual and almost invisible progress gives amazing results. Here: a majestic yellow beauty at the Aalborg Zoo.

What is this blog series about? You can find this out in its first blog post called “5 Minute Perseverance Game – Moving my Favorite Game to my Writing Blog.”

Results for days 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 of the round June 2017 of the 5 Minute Perseverance Game: 12, 10, 10, 7, 7, 7, 9 points out of 15 possible for each day.

Results Total for the 3rd week in June (week 25) 2017: 62 out of 105 possible (59 %)

References in this article:
* http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/kaizen.html
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen
*** http://www.helenrussell.co.uk/books/the-year-of-living-danishly/
**** http://www.helenrussell.co.uk/books/leap-year/

The Relativity of Hard Work and “Hard Fun” in 5 Minute Perseverance Game

June 19, 2017Self-Gamificationvica

Games are often facing a prejudice to be a comfortable place to flee to from the serious and really important assignments. But interestingly enough the “work” we do while playing games is not easy at all. It is in truth hard work. Doable, but not easy at all. At least not in the long run. Otherwise, no one would play the games if they would not challenge us.

Jane McGonical, whom I mentioned already many times in this blog series, and who is a well-known gamification advocate and game designer, has addressed this very specific characteristic of games in much detail.

In her book “Reality is Broken,” Jane McGonical quoted the playwright Noël Coward, who said,

“Work is more fun than fun.”

She has supported this statement by referring to a psychology research method known as the experience sampling method, or ESM, which concentrates on finding out “how we really feel during different parts of our day.”*

These studies show that the widely agreed relaxing or indulging activities, such as eating sweets, watching a movie, or just doing nothing, don’t make us feel better. However, the events where we are challenged, and where we see the task as doable, then we are detected to be the happiest.

Jane calls this kind of work “hard fun.”

She says, “Hard fun leaves us feeling measurably better than when we started [playing**]. So it’s no surprise, then that one of the activities from which ESM subjects report the highest levels of interest and positive moods both during and afterward is when they’re playing games — including sports, card games, board games, and computer and video games. The research proves what gamers already know: within the limits of our own endurance, we would rather work hard than be entertained. Perhaps that’s why gamers spend less time watching television than anyone else on the planet.”

The last post on the 5 Minute Perseverance Game titled “The ‘Unnecessary’ Obstacle of the 5 Minute Perseverance Game and Why it Turns an Overwhelming Task into Doable” could appear contradicting the above statements of the hard work inside games. We discovered there that the limiting time of working on a project makes it doable, that is easier than if we were doing it in one piece. So, is the 5 Minute Perseverance Game an exception and it is all ease and “piece of cake”?

Not exactly. We still need to work on our projects. The ones we procrastinated, those challenging us so much that we both yearn to do them and at the same fear as hell the results of our work. So the work is still hard, but the 5 minutes adjusts this overwhelming task into the “the limits of our own endurance” and unknowingly to us we start loving the job at hand instead of dreading or even hating it. Thus, even the tasks, which we have to do but have the idea we don’t want to do, become doable and even enjoyable because we manage to do them. We might find ourselves doing them for a longer period of times, or taking more tasks into the game. And when the game becomes too much, and we overdrive ourselves, we can choose to play differently, just like in other games we can leave one game and search another that satisfies our interests and “endurance.”

So the relativity of the 5 Minute Perseverance Game is also its paradox. On the one hand, we still need to make an effort and challenge ourselves to work through the 5 minutes. But on the other hand, by delimiting the time we invest into any project during any given day, we can reward ourselves much sooner than if we worked the whole day, or week, or month on the same task. In other words, we experience the job at hand as easier to manage than when we thought of it at the beginning. At the same time, it presents itself as engulfing and engaging as it could ever be.

What is your opinion? Do you agree with the concept of the “hard work” and “hard fun” in a game in general and in the 5 Minute Perseverance Game in particular? What is the hard work in the projects you take into your perseverance games?

On the picture above: I often experience cooking as “hard fun.” It is challenging me, but my enjoyment of the process grows as it progresses and the more I leave the past events of the day behind. I cannot, however, take the credit for this beautiful and utterly yummy salmon creation. My niece and her life partner have cooked this and several other gourmet dinners for us during their short stay with us this June.

What is this blog series about? You can find this out in its first blog post called “5 Minute Perseverance Game – Moving my Favorite Game to my Writing Blog.”

Results for days 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 of the round June 2017 of the 5 Minute Perseverance Game: 6, 7, 6, 8, 8, 11, 11 points out of 15 possible for each day.

Results Total for the 2nd week in June (week 24) 2017: 57 out of 105 possible (54 %)

References in this article:
* Jane McGonical, “Reality is Broken” (E-book Location 562)
** added by the author of this article