Have you levelled up in Level Up Life yet?

According to the app Level Up Life I’m great when at spending time outdoors and pretty good at social skills and communication. However I’m a little low on the culture side of things. Nothing a trip to see a live show or museum won’t fix..

Please not I’m not getting paid at all by the team behind Level Up Life, this is more a recommendation after using the app after a few weeks. I’ve enjoyed it, hopefully you might too!

Being an RPG nut (that’s role playing game for the initiated, not rocket powered grenades) I am a big fan of gamification. And if you’re not sure what that means, well it’s best summed up by the Oracle being a quick look over at Google:

Gamification – The application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service.

-Google

Which is why I’ve been using the app Fitocracy for years with any and all workouts and why anything with that element of point scoring or stat building goes pretty well on my phone, hence why I figured I’d give Level Up Life a spin. In a nutshell it’s about you getting better at life.

And who doesn’t want to get better at that?

Track your everyday achievements in life. Get motivated by earning XP from real life challenges ranging from simple to life changing.
-Level Up Life website

You’re not a wizard, grizzled barbarian or sneaky thief, you’re just you. Log the tasks you do and watch your XP (experience points) rise. When they rise enough, you go up a level. However unlike usual Role Playing Games where your stats usually rise after you level up, in this app they rise depending on the activities you’ve chosen as they happen. Which means if you spend more time doing strength based tasks, your Strength stat is going to climb a whole heap faster than your Charisma one will. Which means for a well balanced life, you really can’t keep hitting the ‘I tidied up the house for 10 mins’ option over and over again.

At the time of writing I’m at Level 6 and high on the Environment state (doing a lot of gardening and spending time outside) where my Culture and Intelligence stats could do with a little more work:

Level Up Life

But how do you improve a certain stat? By doing specific activities to raise it. In the Culture side of things if I spent some time in an art gallery, I’d get a little boost to my Culture and a handful of XP. However if I went to a live rocking gig somewhere (Something like Thirsty Merc playing in Yackandah this Friday) then the gains would be a little bit better.

And if I made something? My XP, culture AND talent would rise. Score!

There’s no prizes to be one, no discounts by using the app, no getting to the end of finishing a game because like I said, it’s all about getting better at life and the satisfaction of crossing a level and getting stronger, cooler or more aware of the vastness of life in the process (profound I know!) What keeps this interesting is the locked tasks. There’s a few in each list on Level Up Life that won’t be revealed until you get to a certain level so you’re not sure what’s on the list until you start rising up through the ranks. So while the tasks seem basic at first, the higher XP options and variation in activities do come through pretty quickly.

What I’ve been doing to get to level 6 so far:

-A lot of time outside. Which isn’t a biggie for me because weather permitting, I’d happily stay outside for as long as I could.

-A lot of gardening (hence my Outdoor score going nuts.) I have weeds, I have lawn, after the weekend I have a blown up whipper snipper (it’s a long story.) Which means gardening tasks are a natural go to for me.

-Exercise sessions, used with the Fitocracy up. I’ll write up on how much I love this app too soon enough.

-Stretching. I don’t stretch enough already so this is a good excuse to do it more!

-Socialising. Although I do need to do this a lot more.

-Walking to work and back (don’t forget your sunscreen!)

-Reading (going to need more books for this!)

-Cooking for the fam (a no brainer this one, I love cooking!)

You can even share pictures of your activities if you choose.

Now you may be asking ‘You could cheat this really easily’ and you’re right, you really could. But as the app itself points out, it’s based on the honesty system. And since you’re trying to improve your own life by getting in a wide range of activities, it really seems pointless pretending to do what you’re not actually doing it ‘I had a dream about cooking, can I have some points?’ No you can’t – now go clean up your kitchen and cook up a feast to earn those points!
Since the starting options are basic and many, there’s really no excuse to fudge the numbers – this app isn’t supposed to be a chore, more to make you appreciate the things you’re already doing a little bit more and discover the things that could improve your life if only you gave them a go.

How to find out more about Level Up Life

You can start with the website (you can log your activities here) or there’s also the Android app (no IOS app that I know of yet.) They also have a Twitter good to go. And while the Level Up Life app does come with ads, you can pay to disable them – which I did thanks to all the credit I’ve made through the Google Rewards app.

Also if you want to follow me, I’m there as ‘Almigo.’ Come and say hi and may the sky be your level limit!

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