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, make progress on projects, and maintain good habits with plenty of proven coping mechanisms – all cloaked in cute creatures, customization, and soothing music.
However, there are plenty of productivity tracking games that end up being more of a hindrance than a facilitate. Some are so addictive that they are actually distracting, others are laden with ads, and still others simply fail to deliver on the most crucial element of a good productivity game: motivating you to complete real-world tasks in order to progress in the game.
I’ve tested 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 – Ghost Town: Lofi Sessions AND Virtual cottage — they fit seamlessly into my workflows, giving me the motivation to complete specific tasks without it becoming a cumbersome piece of software or, worse yet, just another task to add to the stack. I don’t employ any of these tools on a daily basis. Instead, I run them on a second monitor or in a diminutive window when I really can’t focus, my to-do list gets unwieldy, or I’m just bored with the work I’m doing.
Ghost Town: Lofi Sessions
Ghost Town: Lofi Sessions includes a range of tools to track, focus and be more productive, such as to-do lists, customizable pomodoro timers, habit trackers, background sounds you can turn on and off, a journal and plenty of lo-fi beats for studying and relaxing. The functionality itself is excellent, with handy keyboard shortcuts for adding list items and the ability to upload your own music or play music from your YouTube channel. But it really shines with its design and character.
The aim of the game, apart from performing everyday tasks, is to lure ghosts by spending time in the game. The amount of distraction and procrastination involved in setting up the game is perfect for people like me – I spent about 10 minutes designing my character and my room when I first launched it, playing around with whether I wanted horns or halos; iced coffee or balmy matcha at my desk. But you need coins to buy more cosmetics, which means you have to complete actual tasks and lure ghosts.
Spiritdex is full of tips (you can get more by completing tasks and pomodoros) on how to find ghosts: “Tip: I heard of a ghost who loves boba tea. It’s a great way to improve my mood when my energy is low after a long day of writing!” To attract this spirit, for example, I set my character on the desk with a cup of boba and watched for Spiritdex to report that I had started attracting the spirit, which takes a while – a perfect opportunity to knock something off your to-do list.
Once you’ve lured them, you can customize your ghosts and let them sit by your side while you work in the game, whether you’re being kicked by a fire on a starry night or sitting by the window reading while it rains outside. The game strikes a hard balance between intrigue and distraction very well, finding ways to keep you coming back without giving the player too much to do in the game.
Photo: DU&I
Where to play: macOS, Windows
Virtual cottage by DU&I is a much simpler, smaller version Ghost Town — and it’s completely free. If you don’t have a gaming PC, this is probably an option for you as it’s a lightweight game that can be run in a diminutive window alongside other programs.
Once you launch the game, a window will appear asking you to enter what you want to focus on today, whether it’s work, studying, writing, or anything else. You then program how long you want to focus and see if you want a sound to sound when the timer ends. That’s it – your time has begun.
While working, you can watch your little avatar sitting and working at the desk. You can linger for a few minutes while playing with the settings: cat or dog companion, hair color, skin tone, and sliders that adjust ambient sounds like a thunderstorm or a crackling fire. There’s also a music player with 27 lo-fi songs, which is fine – but I usually choose my own music or just listen to the sounds of the rain.
Virtual cottage it doesn’t shove incentives down your throat, but rather gives you something nice to watch while you work and a nice tool to keep track of your to-do list. If you prefer to work for longer periods of time, this may be an even better option than Ghost Townwhich will facilitate you level up and unlock more things in the background game.
