Gamify Your Creativity: Turn Boring Tasks into Fun Adventures!

Let’s dive right into the fun! This episode is all about transforming mundane tasks into exciting challenges, because who said cleaning up your room has to feel like a chore? Timothy Keemel Bryan, our head instigator, is continuing the “Make Fun a Habit” series, inspired by Mike Brennan’s workbook that helps inject some joy into your creative routine. We’ll chat about gamification—yes, that's a fancy word for turning boring stuff into a game—so you can tackle your to-do list with a playful spirit. Whether you're studying, working, or even cleaning the cat litter (ugh, right?), we’re dishing out tips on how to keep it light and enjoyable. So grab your gaming hat, let’s level up those dull tasks, and make fun a regular part of our creative lives!

Making Fun A Habit Series

30 days to add fun to your creative practice. I will be going through Mike Brennan's Make Fun A Habit workbook and help you make fun a habit. I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike on my other podcast Find A Podcast About and talking about his podcast Creative Chats. This workbook leads you through steps to rekindle the fun in your life and get you into a space where you are your most creative. This is a 30-day book and I will tackle each day as if it were a week and provide insights on how to use his ideas in your creative practice. Each chapter is broken up with a short story, questions to ponder, action items, and tips.

Assignment

Questions

1. What games did you enjoy as a kid?
2. What games do you enjoy currently?
3. What tasks do you find boring that you can gameify? What would that look like?

Action Items

1. Have a game night with family and friends
2. Talk about what aspects of games you enjoy
3. Brainstorm how you can take those elements and apply them to work you don't enjoy

Tips

1. Identify the goals of gamification
2. Choose the right game elements
3. Make the game elements meaningful
4. Track progress and reward users
5. Keep it fun

In this episode, we tackle the art of making fun a regular part of your creative process, inspired by Mike Brennan’s amazing book, *Make Fun a Habit*. Timothy walks us through the concept of gamification, where you can turn your least favorite tasks into engaging games. With witty remarks and light-hearted banter, he elaborates on how simple tasks like studying or cleaning can become exciting challenges, complete with points and rewards! Timothy shares personal stories about his childhood games and how these experiences shaped his current creative endeavors. By the end of our chat, you’ll be equipped with practical tips on how to introduce game elements into your daily tasks, helping you to not just survive your chores but to thrive while having a blast! This episode is a perfect blend of humor and insightful advice, making it a must-listen for anyone looking to spark their creativity and enjoy the process.

Takeaways:

• Gamifying mundane tasks can transform your chores into fun challenges that boost creativity.
• Using playful competition in your daily routine can enhance productivity and make boring tasks enjoyable.
• Implementing game elements like point systems can motivate you to engage more deeply in your work or studies.
• Tracking your progress and rewarding yourself can turn tedious tasks into a rewarding game experience.

Links referenced in this episode:

• findapodcast about...

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Create Art Podcast CommentaryGame on part of the Make Fun a Habit
series. Hello friend. This isTimothy Keemel Bryan, your head instigator
for Create Art podcast where Iuse my over 30 years of experience
in the arts and educationworld to help you tame your inner

(00:26):
critic and create more morethan you consume. So we're continuing
on with our Make Fun of Habitseries from Mike Brennan, who runs
the Creative Chats podcast.And I actually got a chance to interview
him on my other podcast, whichis called Find a Podcast about and

(00:48):
you can find that atfindapodcast About XYZ now, why did
I choose to do this series?Well, he came out with a book called
Make Fun a Habit and what itis. It's a 30 day workbook that you
can use to do just what itsays, make fun a habit and you can

(01:09):
do it for your creativepractice, no matter what creative
practice you choose to use.Now, the links will be in the show
notes there for you so youdon't need to worry about busting
out a pen or paper or anythinglike that. But let me tell you how
the workbook is set up. First,what Mike does is he tells you a
story about whatever topiche's covering for that chapter. And

(01:34):
the chapters are broken upinto 30 chapters, which is about
30 days, depending on whatmonth you're in. So he'll tell a
story and then what he'll dois he'll give you questions to think
about, give you action itemsto think about doing to put that
fun back into your creativehabit. And then he'll give you some

(01:57):
tips on how to do it. So let'sgo ahead with this chapter, which
is chapter 29. We are almostdone with it. I know it's honestly
quite a quick read. And if youdo it one a day, that month is going
to go by so fast for you andyou're going to have so many cool

(02:18):
ideas and you're going to havea great time with it. But in this
chapter, we're talking aboutgamification or game on. So Mike
tells a story of when he hadto, you know, when he was cleaning
up around he was a kid andcleaning up around the house and
had to, you know, clean upsome trash and all that and how exciting

(02:40):
that is. Yeah, I know most ofus hated doing chores when we were
kids. I'm one of those. Andeven as an adult, I look at the chores,
I'm looking at my lawn rightnow going, oh my God, I got to cut
that. And yesterday I recordthese on Sunday mornings. But yesterday

(03:01):
I'm looking at, you know, thetrash and the cat litter and the
cat food and all the stuffneeds to be done around the house.
And, you know, it's. It's myday off, and I'm looking at all these
chores and going, but if wechange our mindset and make it a
game now, there's plenty ofgames out there that we do on our

(03:24):
phones. If you have a gamingsystem. I grew up in the age of Atari
2600, so I've always had agaming system around here somewhere.
But if we turn these thingsinto a game, these tasks that we
don't like, then we can reallyget through them. And it's not just

(03:46):
for our creative practice.Let's think about different ways
or. And Mike tells usdifferent ways we can use this. So
let's say you're in college oryou're still going to school or doing
some sort of trade school orsomething like that. You can start
off with education. And, youknow, what you could do with that
is, you know, every time youdo a half hour or hour of studying,

(04:12):
you get a point or you getsome award or some sort of badge
that you create for yourself.And that can make that monotonous
task of studying for a test oractually taking the test or, you
know, completing a course,make that into a game for yourself.

(04:32):
You can also use it in theworkplace. So I'm sure we all have
jobs that we're, you know,unless you're independently wealthy,
you're probably working and,you know, maybe you get a task done
or maybe you survive a meetingor something like that and you give
yourself a gold star or youtrack it on some sort of chart. Well,

(04:53):
see if you can't, you know,bump up the point. See if you can't
improve from what you did lastweek, last month, last year. You
can also use it with yourhealth and fitness. I started doing
some. Some gym work and somepool work late last year. In 2024,

(05:15):
in 2025, I need to get back toit. Yes, I do. But I have the. My
smartwatch that tracks all mystuff. So what I try to do is, you
know, get more steps in everyday or do more laps in the pool or
lift more weights or burn morecalories. It's really easy to do

(05:36):
that these days. And then onething that I found really interesting
is customer engagement. Now, Idon't think of you as a customer.
I think of you as a listener.But, you know, if I can improve the
engagement that I have withyou, Answer more emails, answer more
questions, reach out to morepeople, connect people together,

(05:59):
because these are things that,you know, I can do for you. And then
I can track that and go, okay,so this month I did this many emails.
This month I did this manyepisodes. I want to do more for next
month, I want to do more forthe next six months. I want to do
more for a year. So that wayyou can, you know, kind of make it

(06:20):
into a game for yourself andget that high score, whatever that
high score is for you. Allright, we're going to go into Mike's
questions for us here, andquestion number one is what games
did you enjoy as a kid? Well,one of the games that I really enjoyed
was playing army with ourneighborhood kids. We lived, well,

(06:43):
it's not really a suburb ofChicago, but we lived in Rockford,
Illinois. And we had all thesewoods around us and we would make
model airplanes, usually ofWorld War II aircraft, and we would
fly those around in our handsand we'd also play army, you know,
with, you know, guns and allthat kind of good stuff. And, you

(07:07):
know, those are the, you know,kind of outdoor games that we played.
But then, like I said earlier,I grew up with Atari 2600, so we
would play those games in thesummertime. You know, we go into
our garage because we had itset up and I don't know why we did
it this way, but we had a TVset up in the garage with a couple
of chairs and our Atari 2600and we would play that for hours

(07:31):
on end and waste the summer.Honestly, it was a waste of summer.
But those are things that Ireally remember fondly as a kid.
The next question is, whatgames do you currently enjoy again?
I'm a console kid, so I havemy PlayStation 4 and play, you know,

(07:53):
I'm still playing Army, I playCall of Duty, Modern Warfare, and
I also play Diablo 4,currently here in 2025. And you know,
those are games that I enjoyplaying. I'm not, unfortunately,
I'm not huge on board gamesand my kids are. So that's something
that I need to work on and getmore involved in. And then the last

(08:20):
question is, what tasks thatyou find boring can you gamify? What
would. What would this looklike? So, and this is a weird thing
I really like researching, butit's also really time consuming and
boring. So for me and fixingup websites, you know, it just, it's

(08:46):
ness. It's a necessary evil.So maybe if I just go, okay, I'll
do a little bit this day, alittle bit that day, and then do
more and more and more andthen track what I've done. That would
be a way that I could gamifyit. I don't know. What are you thinking
about doing? All right, so theaction item is pretty easy on this

(09:10):
one. And he says to host agame night with friends, families,
or co workers and talk aboutthe aspects of the games that you
enjoy, and then brainstorm howyou can take those game elements
and apply them to work ortasks that you don't enjoy and make
a friendly competition out ofit and see who can get the best results

(09:35):
and then set a time frame andmake award. Make an award show for
completion to be celebrated.So that's really bringing in other
people. That's bringing inoutside people into your creative
space and seeing what they'redoing. And maybe you get an idea
of what this person is doingover here, that person's doing over

(09:58):
there to, you know, make yourcreative process that much more fun.
All right, so the tips that hegives us. First one is identify the
goal of gamification. Are youtrying to do something better? You
know, are you trying to speedup your process? Are you trying to

(10:21):
get better at your process?What is the goal of this gamification?
Is it just to get through themonotonous tasks? That's. That's
a goal right there. So why notthat the next thing is choose the
right game elements. Not. Youknow, so when you're looking at these
different games, board games,card games, dice games, whatever

(10:42):
it is, I'm just thinking aboutYahtzee. Yahtzee is on my mind for
some reason. But choose theelements from those games that you
can use when you gamify thetasks that you find boring in your
process. The next tip is makethe game elements meaningful. So,

(11:07):
you know, if the only thingthat you play is checkers, how is
that going to be helpful? Theelements of checkers, how is that
going to be helpful to you?You know, the goal is to take all
the other pieces or. Yeah,basically with checkers is the goal
is to take all the otherpieces. But how does that help you
and what you're trying to do?Maybe it's a thing where it's a adventure

(11:34):
game and you're trying to getas much experience as you can. That
would be more in line withwhat I'm looking for. Maybe you're
looking for somethingdifferent. The next tip is to track
progress and reward users. Somake sure you're tracking this stuff
for yourself. However, it'sGotta be for you. Just make sure

(11:55):
that you're tracking it.Because at the end of the day or
at the end of the year, whenyou look back at it and you see how
much you've actually done,when you're in the middle of it,
you don't feel like you'redoing a whole lot. But when you look
after a year of the work thatyou've done. Case in point, Friday

(12:15):
night, I was looking for apoem on my website, and it shocked
me how many episodes of CreateArt Podcast are out there. I was
like, wow, that you know it.When I'm doing an episode, I don't
think about all the episodesthat I've already done, all the people
that I've talked to. But whenyou, you know, pull back your focus

(12:40):
and you go, wow, I have done alot, it really makes you good. You
know, it really makes it hardfor that imposter syndrome to. To
have any basis in reality. Somake sure you're tracking your progress
with it. And then the last tipis, of course, keep it fun. I mean,
don't. Don't stress on thistracking. Don't stress on what elements

(13:05):
are going to work, whatelements are not going to work. The
big thing, and you know thetitle of the book is Make Fun a habit,
the important word in there isfun. So whatever you end up doing
for your gamification of, youknow, your menial or boring tasks,
make it fun. And with games,games are fun. Games are meant to

(13:30):
be fun. You know, the peoplethat make games, they want you to
keep on playing them. And, youknow, some games, that's their whole
thing is to keep you in thegame and for you not to get back
into the real, real world. Sowhatever, whatever thing you choose,
just go ahead and make it funfor yourself. All right? That is

(13:52):
all the time I have for youhere today. I want to thank you so
much for listening to thisepisode of Create Art Podcast. I
hope you found something outof it. I know I certainly did. Especially
that part where Mike wastalking about customer interaction.
I think that's something thatI haven't really done that much,
and that's something that Iknow I want to do more. I want to

(14:14):
track that, I want to gamifythat. I want to see if I can get
more reactions, some moreengagement. So that's what you're
going to see me doing here inthe next next few episodes. If you'd
like to reach out to me,please do. Timothyreateartpodcast.com
if you have show ideas or ifyou want to appear as a guest, that's

(14:36):
the best way to get a hold ofme. And if you want to share this
with somebody, by all means,your podcast app should have some
sort of share button. I'dreally appreciate it. And you never
know who you're going to helpout with. Maybe this episode isn't
for you, but maybe it is andyou're like, man, yeah, that's a
great idea. I can't wait toshare this with the world. By all

(14:58):
means. I'm not going to biteyour head off, I promise. Share it
with the world. I definitelyappreciate it. And the people that
you share with are definitelygoing to appreciate it as well. All
right, two things I want totalk to you about here as we close
out. One is I have started abusiness in 2025. It's called TKB
Podcast Studio and that'swhere I help my clients lead to the

(15:21):
noise with quietprofessionalism. So if you're thinking
about starting up a podcast,head on over to the website tkbpodcaststudio.com
and let's see what I can dofor you. The other thing, and I mentioned
it earlier, is I run anotherpodcast called Find a Podcast about.
You can find that one atfindapodcast about xyz. And that's

(15:44):
where I review podcasts that Ipersonally find binge worthy. And
a lot of times the podcasthost will be on there to be interviewed.
What am I doing there? Well,basically I'm trying to help you
outsmart the algorithm andfind your next binge worthy podcast.
So meet me over there atfindapodcast about xyz. All right,

(16:05):
I need to get on with my dayas I'm recording it. This one, it's
Father's Day, so I got to getready for, you know, my, my socks
and ties and all that kind ofstuff that comes with Father's Day.
But I to let you get on withyour day as well. So go out there,
tame your inner critic, Createmore than you consume. Go out there,

(16:30):
have some fun, play a game andmake some art for somebody you love.
Yourself. I'll talk to youreal soon.