Have You Earned Your Brownie Today?

Last year, my husband baked a sheet of brownies for himself to use as rewards while redoing our downstairs bathroom. 🚽

It was a large task—the whole half-bath needed to be gutted right down to the cement foundation. But by breaking it up into small tasks (with a brownie reward), it was something he could accomplish mostly on his own.

Where’d he get the idea to do such a thing? 
Some self-help guru?

A YouTuber?

A genius wonderkin? 

Nope. Video games. 

He’s a gamer, and he’s just applied the micro achievement and reward system games use to real life. A principle better known as Gamification. 

So instead of thinking, “I have to redo the whole bathroom.” 
He reframed it as: “Today, I have to put in the floor tiles to earn my brownie.” 

And your “brownie” could be anything. Maybe it’s a baked treat or your favorite meal. Maybe it’s watching an episode of the latest hit TV show. 📺 Or reading the next chapter of a thrilling book. 📖

One of my friends even has a real prize wheel. Every time she writes 10K words, she gets to spin it and see what fabulous prize she’s won for herself. 

By using micro-achievement rewards, a seemingly daunting task like “writing a novel” or “editing your book” instead becomes “write a thousand words today” or “edit 2 chapters.”

And let’s not forget the hidden bonus of this. Gamification takes something that often feels like a slog through mud and instead casts you as a Legendary Character on some important quest.

So if you’re currently up against a difficult challenge, Story Quester, whether it’s writing your first (or 10th) story, or cleaning out the garage, why not give micro-achievement rewards a try? 

Well, until next time, Story Quester, this is your friendly neighborhood storytelling Kat signing off.