The repetitive parts of office work get a bad rap. They're also the parts that pay the bills. The cheap fix is not to eliminate routine - it's to reframe it. A single time-based gamification trick covers most of the lift.
Make a Game Out of Your To-Do List
Routine gets a bad reputation these days.
With nonstop TikTok scrolling and ADHD talk everywhere, anything repetitive feels like public enemy number one.
Which is a shame! Routine is where you can shine since you do the same thing over and over again.
So how to tackle those recurring tasks? The key is to fool your brain into thinking you're doing something new and exciting.
For me, that means gamifying it. I turn a repetitive, boring task into a little challenge: "How many emails / invoices / phone calls can I get through in 30 minutes?" Competing with myself is the ultimate cheat code-I always win.
You can't really change what the task is about. But you can change the frame around it. In this case, time.
By the way, here are six Notion templates that help you gamify your daily routine. You can earn experience points, unlock rewards, and reach new levels when you go through your tasks (or should I say quests 🥷).
As always, don't forget to treat yourself.
Why Gamification Works (When It Works)
The "compete with yourself against the clock" trick isn't a new idea - behavioural researchers have been studying it for decades under the label of intrinsic gamification. A 2017 meta-analysis published in Computers in Human Behavior, covering 24 studies, found that simple time-bound gamification mechanics produced an average 12-18% lift in task completion rates and a measurable reduction in self-reported boredom. The mechanism is straightforward: human attention is calibrated for novelty, and the brain treats "beat my own time" as a new problem even when the underlying task is identical. The catch is that gamification stops working when the reward is artificial or external - earning fake XP for processing real invoices wears off fast. Notion's collection of gamification templates is fine for personal habit tracking but the simplest version (a kitchen timer plus a count) is usually enough for the office context. The trick is keeping the timeboxing tight - 25 to 30 minutes works well; 90 minutes turns into a slog.
Four Easy Ways to Try This This Week
Pick one recurring task you avoid. Email triage, invoice processing, and supplier follow-ups are common candidates.
Set a 25-minute timer. The Pomodoro window is long enough to make progress and short enough to feel like a game.
Count what you get done. Number of emails, invoices, calls - anything you can compare to the next session.
Don't reward yourself with the next task. Take a five-minute walk, make coffee, look out a window. The reset is the reward.
