EXAMPLES: Treehouse & Mint

Recently I have been confronted with two major challenges in my life: Sticking to my goals & dealing with my finances. One of my many goals is, learning basic code to help myself in this vast digital wasteland of 0s and 1s. And guess what? There is an app, which uses basic gamification mechanisms to not only teach you how to code, but to also help you stick to your goals. And let me enlighten you again, there is another app, which lets you keep track of your finances and check this out, it’s gamified, so totally fun and engaging.

First let me introduce you to Treehouse, my friend and helper. Hoes does it work? Lucky you gets to choose a topic you want to learn about. This can be anything ranging from C+, to Design, all the way to Game Development. With every skill you learn, you receive points and achievements. Your progress is showcased on your homepage and courses are designed specifically to help you retain knowledge. Additionally, there is an active community, which lets you interact and learn from each other. Win, win, win I would say :)

End of the month and your bank account is down to zero, tiered of asking friends for money? Sound familiar? Well guess what, there’s an app for that, or better said, there’s an app to keep you from being that person. Mint lets you keep track of boring, mundane finances with a fun and colorful twist. It encompasses a goal tracker, visually breaks down your budgets and collects all your financial data in one simple little app. One of my favourite features, it alerts you, when making stupid financial decisions, such as “hey, you really need to pay that bill, otherwise you will have unnecessary fees” and “look, 5 minutes away is an ATM where you don’t have to pay any ATM fees”. It’s always the little things that swallow my money.

#gamification #gaming #app #goals #finances #productivity