Gamification Works

When I got the notification on my Fitbit app a few weeks ago that I got the Kevin badge for doing 22,222 steps in a day, I had to get the third and final badge, for the heterochromic Bob. Being a completionist kind of guy doesn’t help, either. In my defense, I was in the middle of a month-long competition fitness at work. I normally don’t bother with a tracker or anything like that.

For some reason the final badge didn’t show up in the app, so I screenshotted the notification email, as well as my status page after I earned it.

32,100 steps wasn’t easy, but easier than I thought. I did a run in the morning, a short walk after lunch, and a run at night. Doing housework for a good few hours yields a surprising number of steps.

Fitbit added new Minions-themed badges, now users want a way to disable them. They are silly, but to dislike them enough to want a disable feature?

4 Comments

  • Ed Hurst says:

    If you remember that a concrete goal is just a nudge to push a little harder, it’s not a dumb thing to do. It shows you the terrain of the activity and whether it matters enough to keep at it, or just to hold a reminder that you know how to persist.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.