9 of the Best Apps to 'Gamify' Your Life (and Why You Should)

Formerly known as HabitRPG, Habitica is a fan favorite for a reason. This all-around productivity booster keeps you on top of your to-do list by turning it into an epic quest. When you check off a task or complete a project, you’re rewarded with experience points and gold, the same way you would be in a role-playing game.

What sets Todoist apart from other project management apps is the Karma feature. For every task you finish, you get good karma points; for missing a deadline, you get negative karma. Todoist is easy to use and great for visualizing, tracking, and boosting your productivity.

Forest is perfect if your goal is simply to not get distracted by all the other temptations on your phone. When you want to stay focused, plant a tree in the app. Your tree grows while you stay on task, but if you leave the app with time remaining, your tree dies. Even if you aren’t doing the task you set out to do, at least you won’t be scrolling on social media while you let your tree grow.

Plus, Forest partners with a real tree-planting organization called Trees for the Future. You can spend virtual coins so that Forest donates to trees being planted in the real world.

Arguably the least game-like app on this list, Mint is a free budgeting tool that’s gamified in that all the progress bars, checklists, and leaderboards work together to motivate you. You can set financial goals with personalized insights, custom budgets, spend tracking, and subscription monitoring.

Note: When it comes to gamifying your finances, be wary of apps that gamify investing. According to Dan Egan, Managing Director of Behavioral Finance at Betterment, “the platforms that gamify investing are trying to make money for themselves, not you, so the rewards are not necessarily optimized around you growing your money.” Proceed with caution.

Duolingo is easily the best (or most well-known) free language app. Rote memory work is no way to learn a language, and Duolingo’s lessons are all framed around challenges and rewards so that you can level up. Plus the anime-eyed owl mascot, Duo, is famously aggressive when it comes to sending you daily reminders.

Haven’t we all started learning a new instrument, only to quit sometime around the “hot cross buns” stage? Yousician is like an educational Guitar Hero. The app listens with your device’s microphone while you play an instrument or sing, and it’s a fun and easy way to learn techniques, practice new songs, and put your skills to the test without expensive music lessons.

You could argue that humans gamified fitness with the advent of, well, sports. But if you’re struggling to get yourself to the gym, you can incentivize yourself with Fitocracy badges and achievements that are within reach for users of all fitness levels. It’s motivating to visualize your progress in the app, and specific “quests” are another way to stay committed to your fitness goals.

The app claims to use a game design based on “a framework that activates the psychological strengths of game play to build resilience and be stronger for life.” SuperBetter employs its own sort of language to immerse you in the gamification:

• Power-ups: any achievements that spark positive emotions
• Quests: how you track your daily and weekly goals
• Bad guys: negative habits or mindsets you want to overcome
• Allies: strong, positive social relationships
• Future boosts: anything you’re looking forward to, which can be used as motivators

EpicWin brings a true role-playing feel to your boring old to-do list. Rather than just ticking off your chores and reminders, completing each one earns you XP to improve and develop your character in an ongoing quest to improve stats, gain riches, and level-up. Now, enough with this side quest, and good luck on your main journey.