Did you know that developing essential life skills can be just as satisfying as achieving a personal milestone or overcoming a challenge you enjoy?
Everyday tasks like homework and chores can become engaging and rewarding with the right approach.
This is the power of gamification, which is the process of transforming ordinary (non-game) responsibilities into fun, game-like experiences.
While traditional methods of teaching executive function (EF) skills can often feel tedious, gamification introduces a fresh and playful approach that taps into the science of motivation and the joy of play.
From apps to simple gamified strategies, this article offers practical ways to foster growth, build confidence, and turn challenges into opportunities, all while having fun.
Whether you’re a parent, educator, or other professional, gamification could be the game-changer you’ve been waiting for!
What is Gamification?
Gamification involves adding game-like elements to non-game activities to boost engagement. This approach is often used for tasks that feel boring or unmotivating, with the goal of making them more exciting to complete. Gamification typically includes elements such as rankings, levels, rewards, badges, quests, and storytelling to foster motivation and engagement.
You can see gamification in everyday life, such as in fitness or language learning apps. A popular example is Kahoot!, a game-based learning tool. In Kahoot!, students answer multiple-choice questions and earn points based on their accuracy and speed. The fastest and most accurate students are ranked in the top three, turning a typical quiz into a fun, competitive experience.
Self-Determination Theory
The Self-Determination Theory of Motivation helps explain what drives people to stay motivated. Researchers have found that when people are supported in their autonomy (control over their actions), competence (feeling capable), and relatedness (connections with others), they are more likely to stick with their goals and succeed, especially in areas like improving health or learning new skills. Motivation, which is what drives us to take action, comes in two main types: extrinsic (from outside rewards) and intrinsic (from personal interest or enjoyment).
Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is when you’re motivated by something inside yourself. You do an activity because you enjoy it, find it interesting, or want to challenge yourself. For example, you might read a book because you love the story, play an instrument because it makes you happy, or solve a puzzle just for the fun of figuring it out. Intrinsic motivation comes from your own curiosity, passion, or satisfaction. Tasks that feel challenging or less engaging often require additional effort and motivation to complete, which is a natural and valid part of learning and growth. For individuals with executive functioning challenges, it can be challenging to connect efforts with future rewards, since the brain is wired for immediate gratification.
Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation comes from outside sources, like rewards or pressures. For example, you might do your homework to get a good grade, clean your room because your parents promised you a treat, or practice a sport because your coach expects you to. Extrinsic motivation is driven by external rewards, such as money, prizes, or praise, or by avoiding negative consequences like punishment or disappointment.
How Gamification Relates to Extrinsic Motivation
Gamification often relies on external rewards and incentives to encourage task engagement. Thoughtfully applied, it can also nurture intrinsic motivation by fostering curiosity, enjoyment, and a sense of accomplishment. By adding game-like elements such as points, badges, leaderboards, and rewards, gamification provides tangible and visible incentives that motivate action. This approach is especially helpful for tasks that may not naturally inspire intrinsic motivation.
This theory also helps us understand why neurodivergent individuals might struggle with motivation. If learners don’t feel they have control over their decisions or face challenges in showing their abilities due to language or social difficulties, they might not feel intrinsically motivated to engage in tasks.
Gamification & Executive Function Skill Development
We can incorporate game-like elements into everyday activities to target and strengthen key executive function skills like planning, organization, time management, task initiation, self-monitoring, and working memory.
Goal Setting & Planning
Goal setting is the process of planning the steps needed to achieve personal, academic, or professional goals. When tackling long-term projects, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or lose motivation. Gamification helps by breaking these large goals into smaller, manageable tasks that can be completed in short bursts.
To gamify a big school project, break it into manageable steps—like brainstorming, outlining, and drafting—and reward progress with enjoyable breaks, small treats, or points in a reward system. This makes the process less overwhelming and more motivating. Gamifying your goals not only makes the process more enjoyable but also helps you stay organized and focused as you work toward success.
Time Management
Time management is the ability to understand and use time effectively. Gamification can help improve this skill because it turns managing time into an exciting challenge. For example, you can turn chores or homework into time-based games. Try timing yourself to see how quickly you can complete a task without making mistakes, or challenge a friend or family member to a race to finish first (p. 28). This helps you complete tasks and monitor how long it takes to complete tasks efficiently.
Another way to gamify time management is by setting a time limit for a group of tasks and seeing how many you can finish before the timer runs out. For example, you could challenge yourself to complete as many errands or smaller assignments as possible in 30 minutes. This turns the task into a race against time, making it more exciting and motivating.
Task Initiation
Task Initiation is the ability to independently start working on a task. Gamification can help you overcome getting started, which is the hardest part of the task. For example, you can create a challenge for yourself, like setting a timer for just five minutes and seeing how much progress you can make in that time. Once you begin, the task often feels easier, and you’re more likely to keep going. You could also use a reward system, earning points or badges for starting tasks on time. You can even gamify the process of getting ready to start a task by setting a countdown before diving into the work.
Self-Monitoring
Self-monitoring involves not only observing our behaviors but also how they impact others around us. Gamification helps you stick with tasks by breaking them into smaller, manageable levels. Think of each part of the task as a “level” in a video game. After completing each level, you can reward yourself with something small, like a break, a snack, or a point toward a bigger prize. Visual progress trackers, like charts or apps, can also act as a leaderboard, showing how much closer you are to finishing your goal.
Working Memory
Gamification can be a fun and effective way to strengthen working memory skills, which involve holding and using information in your mind for short periods while completing tasks. Your learner can develop working memory skills by practicing memory games or by attempting to multitask by trying to complete tasks quickly using multiple directions at one time. By turning memory practice into a game, you can make it easier to focus and retain information while having fun.
Benefits of Using Gamification for Executive Function Development
Gamification can lead to increased engagement and motivation by making tasks more fun and rewarding. When tasks feel like a game, they become less boring, and people are more likely to stay interested and motivated to finish them.
Gamification creates a safe environment for trial, error, and growth, where mistakes are opportunities to learn. This can be particularly valuable for neurodivergent learners, as it builds confidence and resilience while removing the fear of failure and encouraging curiosity and perseverance. This is especially supportive for neurodivergent individuals, who may experience heightened fear of failure or anxiety when approaching unfamiliar challenges. In many games, players can try again after failing, which encourages them to keep going and improve. This environment helps build confidence and resilience as players work through challenges without fear of failure.
How to Use Gamification to Build Executive Function Skills
Parents
Families can use gamification techniques to make daily tasks more engaging and collaborative. For example, dishwashing can become a timed challenge to see who can load the dishwasher efficiently, or a chore chart can reward completed tasks with points that can be exchanged for screen time or a family movie night. Additionally, apps like Habitica and BusyKid offer customizable chore-tracking systems with built-in rewards, allowing families to tailor point systems and incentives to their specific needs. Gamification can transform everyday responsibilities into engaging opportunities for achievement by introducing visible progress and lighthearted competition.
Educators
Educators can use gamification strategies by incorporating points, leaderboards, or badges into the classroom. Online platforms like Kahoot! can be used to turn quiz or test reviews into an engaging activity that students look forward to participating in while other platforms like Class Dojo can be used to give students points for demonstrating good classroom behaviors and cashed in for various prizes.
Other Professionals
Other professionals, such as coaches or therapists, can use gamification with their clients by turning tasks or goals into fun, game-like activities. For example, a coach might create a game where clients earn badges for practicing new skills or completing exercises. Coaches can set up challenges or mini-games to help clients stay focused and motivated during practice. By adding rewards, levels, and friendly competition, professionals can make learning and personal growth feel more exciting and less stressful. Gamification is a great way to create personalized support plans for individual learners.
Challenges and Limitations Around Gamification
Not every learner responds to gamified approaches in the same way. Neurodivergent individuals, in particular, may have unique preferences or sensitivities that influence their engagement.
For example, while some may thrive with structured rewards and challenges, others might find competition or sensory elements overwhelming. Adapting gamification to suit diverse needs ensures it remains accessible and supportive for all learners. Individual preferences, learning styles, and sensory sensitivities can impact how effective or enjoyable gamification feels for each person. Some learners may even struggle with the structure or rewards system, limiting its effectiveness.
Social Comparison
Various studies have found that competitiveness in gamification can negatively affect some learners. Some individuals feel increased stress due to performance anxiety when they are compared to others. In addition, repeated failure to perform well on these competitive tasks is at risk of losing interest in the game. Competitiveness can make the newly established “game” feel stressful and unmotivating.
Over-Reliance on External Rewards
One common concern and criticism of any strategy that incorporates rewards is the risk of undermining intrinsic motivation. When learners are encouraged to complete tasks in exchange for external rewards or points, this should be exclusively implemented for tasks that are boring or difficult to otherwise complete without an incentive. When students are provided incentives for activities they are intrinsically motivated to complete, it can make the individual focus more on the external rewards and lessen their natural excitement. This is the opposite of our intended goal, which is to strengthen motivation.
TL;DR – (Too Long; Didn’t Read)
Gamification turns everyday tasks, like homework or chores, into fun, game-like experiences by adding elements such as points, levels, rewards, and challenges. This approach can make learning executive function (EF) skills—like time management, task initiation, self-monitoring, and working memory—more engaging and motivating. By incorporating game features, tasks become more exciting and help build confidence, resilience, and focus.
Gamification works by using both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation comes from doing something because you enjoy it, while extrinsic motivation comes from outside rewards like points or prizes. Educators, parents, and other professionals can use gamification to make tasks more engaging by adding competitive challenges, reward systems, and ways to track progress.
When used effectively, gamification makes learning more engaging, creates a safe environment for trial and error, and builds confidence as learners work through challenges. However, not everyone responds the same way, and over-relying on rewards can sometimes undermine intrinsic motivation. Social comparison can also be stressful for some learners, leading to disengagement.
Further Reading
- Milliken (2016) – Gamify Anything
- Positive Psychology (2018) – Self Determination Theory and How It Explains Motivation
- Ratinho & Martins (2023) – The role of gamified learning strategies in student’s motivation in high school and higher education: A systematic review
- Structural Learning (2024) – Overjustification Effect
- Life Skills Advocate (2020) – 6 Steps to Help Your Child Develop a Strong “Why” When Goal Setting
- Life Skills Advocate (2020) – Executive Functioning Skills 101: The Basics of Planning
- Life Skills Advocate (2020) – Executive Functioning Skills 101: The Basics of Task Initiation
- Life Skills Advocate (2020) – Executive Functioning Skills 101: The Basics of Time Management
- Life Skills Advocate (2021) – Executive Functioning 101: All About Self-Monitoring
- Life Skills Advocate (2021) – Executive Functioning Skills 101: Working Memory