Gamification continues to work for me
by Volker Weber
This is now the 9th full month I have had the Apple Watch. I continue to use exactly three features: notifications, telling the time (doh!) and activity tracking. And as you know I have tasked myself with never missing a single day. I have to get up once an hour for at least twelve hours (blue ring), I have to exercise 30 minutes a day (green ring) and I have to burn 600 move calories. When you do it for a week, you get badge for Perfect Week, which I received just yesterday for the 39th time. Just for reaching one of the goals, the Move goal, for a whole month on every single day, you get a month badge, starting at 6/2015 for me. Today I received the 2/2016 badge as indicated by the blue dot. That is also both easier (Move goal only) and harder (29 to 31 days without a miss).
I have also received the longest move streak badge, one row below to the left. This has happened every single day, now for the 277th time. If I'd miss tomorrow, I would need to exercise 278 days before receiving it again. And I don't want that to happen, do I? This is how the "xxx days since the last work accident" display works. You don't want to break that chain and set it back to one.
There are a lot more badges towards the top of the achievements tab, but the interesting ones to shoot for are the ones at the bottom. Tomorrow there is going to be a new 3/2016 badge that has not been earned. There will be 4/2016 and 5/2016 before I can earn the 365 days of reaching my move goal, making it a full year. And of course I want this to happen on the same day I get the move streak to 365, 88 days from now, on May 27. Four days later later I hope to get the 12th month badge with this notification:
I hope to also make the 500 days badge in October on this Apple Watch. This is actually the hardest part when you try to not break the chain: your Watch has to work and your iPhone has to work. If either one fails, you won't have a perfect month and your longest move streak goes back to zero. I have replaced an iPhone twice and a Watch once, without breaking the chain. All three events were planned.
Don't kid yourself though. It's not really Apple Watch that keeps me in motion:
Comments
Thumbs up and hail to your trainer ;)!
Fantastic effort Volker. Although with your friend maybe it isn't that much effort.
I am wondering how I would achieve the same with 16hr long haul flights, with 1hr connections to another 5-6hr flight. I guess I can run between gates! Timing would be very important as well.
