If you feel me, and I know many of you do, you may already know about productivity games. These games encourage you to complete tasks, progress on projects, and maintain good habits with plenty of tried-and-true coping mechanisms, all masked under a cloak of cute creatures, customization, and relaxing music.
But there are tons of productivity tracking games out there that prove to be more of a hindrance than a help. Some are so engaging that they're actually distracting, some are full of ads, and others simply fail at the most important element of a good productivity game: motivating you to complete real-life tasks in order to progress in the game.
I've tried dozens of digital productivity tools over the years (most of them before I was diagnosed), with varying degrees of gamification. The only two I recommend… Spiritual city: Lofi sessions and virtual house — fit seamlessly into my workflows, giving me the push I need to complete certain tasks without the software becoming cumbersome or, worse, just one more task to add to the pile. I don't use any of these tools every day. Instead, I turn them on a second monitor or a small window when I'm really having a hard time concentrating, or my to-do list is getting unwieldy, or I'm just bored with the work I'm doing.
Spiritual city: Lofi sessions
Image: Mooncube Games
Spiritual city: Lofi sessions It incorporates a host of tracking, focus, and productivity tools, including to-do lists, customizable Pomodoro timers, habit trackers, background sounds you can turn on and off, a journal, and tons of lo-fi beats for studying and relaxing. The functionality itself is excellent, with useful hotkeys for adding items to the list and the option to upload your own music or play music from a YouTube channel. But it really shines for its design and characters.
The goal of the game, besides completing your real-life tasks, is to attract spirits by spending time in the game. The amount of distraction and procrastination involved in setting up the game is ideal for people like me: I spent about 10 minutes designing my character and room when I first started it, playing with whether I wanted horns or a halo; an iced coffee or a hot matcha at my desk. But you need coins to buy more cosmetics, which means you have to complete real-life tasks and attract spirits.
The Spiritdex is full of clues (of which you can get more when you complete tasks and pomodoros) on how to find spirits: “Hint: I heard about a spirit who loves boba tea. It's a great pick-me-up when my energy runs out after writing all day! To attract that spirit, for example, I would place my character on the desk with a cup of boba and watch to see if the Spiritdex reports that I have begun to attract the spirit, which takes some time – a perfect opportunity to attract attention. something off your to-do list.
Once you attract them, your spirits can be customized and you can choose to let them sit with you while you work on the game, whether lounging by the fire on a starry night or sitting in the window seat reading while it rains. outside. The game executes the difficult balance between intrigue and distraction very well, finding ways to keep you coming back without giving the player too many in-game tasks.
Image: DU&I
Where to play: Mac OS, Windows
virtual house DU&I is a much simpler and smaller version of spiritual city – and it's totally free. If you don't have a gaming PC, this is probably your option because it's a lightweight game that can run in a small window alongside your other programs.
When you start the game, a window asks you to write down what you want to focus on today, whether it's work, studying, writing, or something else. Then you program how long you would like to focus and check whether you want to hear a sound when the timer ends. That's it, your time has begun.
While you work, you can watch your little avatar sit and work at his desk. You can procrastinate for a few minutes worrying about settings: pet cat or dog, hair color, skin tone, and sliders that customize ambient sounds like a thunderstorm or a crackling fire. There's also a music player with 27 lo-fi songs, which is nice, but I usually opt for my own music or just listen to the sounds of the rain.
virtual house It doesn't impose incentives on you, but instead gives you something nice to look at while you work and a nice tool to keep track of your to-do list. If you prefer to work for long periods at a time, it might be an even better option than spiritual citywhich levels you up and unlocks more background game stuff.