I keep a set of juggling balls in my desk (and in my backpack), so I can take a play break whenever I need one. If I have a really intense day, building marketing campaigns for clients, and I know I will have to spend multiple hours in focused work, I make sure to designate [...]
People who wear glasses will flash a bright white square in the reflection of their lenses when they navigate to a new tab. If a virtual meeting is boring, it’s easy to multitask, check emails, and scroll through social media. The person leading the meeting was reading her bullet points off of a slide, which [...]
When I was a kid, I spent many happy hours memorizing the colorful lights and sounds of Simon. One of the early handheld electronic games, Simon was both simple and friendly: it would light up one of four colored buttons and play a note, and in response, you would press the same button. Then [...]
Work without will or wonder is just drudgery. Play is an overlap of work, will, and wonder, and it transforms how we participate in the act of working.Bringing play into your work increases your capacity to do work well. Think of the seven dwarves, toiling in the mines; they knew to whistle while you work. Play makes [...]
Gamification stimulates five hormones that our brains use to regulate emotions, mood, and decisions: Oxytocin: the ‘empathy’ hormone Cortisol: the ’stress’ hormone Endorphin: the ‘euphoria’ hormones Dopamine: the ‘reward’ hormone Serotonin: the ‘balance’ hormone Different gamification techniques trigger specific hormones in our brains. If you understand their physiological effects, and how to stimulate them [...]
Have you ever heard of the Super Mario Effect? In the TED talk given by Mark Rober in 2018, the Youtuber described how players will happily endure repeated failure with menial tasks while playing the game Super Mario Brothers. Image by Mark Rober If we tested a bunch of kids on if [...]