Feltpad

It seems that everything I have been reading lately talks about gamification – gamify your life, gamify your job, gamify your dog.

I have taken two aspects of gamification – points tracking and rewards – and started to apply them to my business.

Points Tracking
Each quarter for the past year I have created a spreadsheet that tracks Feltpad’s different sources of income, along with how much income I expect from each of those sources each month.

As the quarter progresses, the numbers start to add-up (or not) and I can give myself a grade, for the month and for the quarter, based my performance. When I’m doing really well, it motivates me to see that I am close to hitting 100%. When I’m not doing so well, it is at least interesting to see where I should be.

Example Spreadsheet:

Rewards
People love rewards, even if they are meaningless. Look at Foursquare. People love getting badges – digital badges that appear on their phones.

This quarter I have implemented a rewards system for myself. I will get a bonus at the end of the quarter, based on my rating at the end of the quarter. The rule is that I get to spend this money on something fun that I would otherwise not purchase.

The rewards are based on a grading scale. The highest reward is for an A+ (97%+) at the end of the quarter and quickly reduce for each lower grade. If I get a C or below, I get no reward.