The XP Experience: How Tracking Progress Builds Motivation (With Calculator)

The year is 1999. The 8-bit siren song of Pokemon Silver emanates from the Gameboy Color, effectively drawing my child-brain into a dopamine-fueled flowstate of XP grind. The blue XP bar, now a mere hairsbreadth away from a level up, holds endless possibilities. It would take near divine intervention to peel me away from the screen at a time like this.

Odds are you’ve experienced this same feeling if you’re reading this now. So what is it about XP and level ups that makes them so enticing?

For one, it speaks directly to the reward centers in our brain that derive pleasure from achievement.

XP and the subsequent level up are designated “finish lines” - mini achievements which trigger these reward centers.

The XP grind is made further enticing due to direct feedback from the user display.

We know with utmost certainty that the only thing standing between us & the success of a new level up is a few more Pokemon battles. With repeated action, the bar fills predictably towards the much desired level-up! A never ending stream of bigger and better things await us, and we know just how to get there - how motivating!

Unfortunately life outside doesn’t have all those simple reward systems and feedback loops.

Quantifying progress is messy. Next steps are not always clear. There’s no blue bar telling you that you’re making the right moves. Rarely do we hear “Great work on hitting your level 3 job goals, here’s your promotion to level 4! Do these things and you’ll get to level 5 with all these perks!”

Fortunately there are some reasonable timelines in which we can expect the human body to adapt from healthy habits.

From there establishing XP rewards for said habits and level-up cut-offs becomes easier. These systems provide feedback on our journey and can keep motivation high.

We’ve made a Google Sheet to allow you to tabulate progress on the go.

The sheet auto-calculates your XP points and character level, allowing you to earn attribute points which you can allot to earn game bonuses into our fitness RPG, the ruleset of which is nearing readiness for beta testing.

Access the Google Sheet Here - Download it then upload to your own google drive to use it on-the-go anywhere!

Calculator Preview:

Page 1 is your main character page. This first page acts as a central hub where all of your XP will be auto-calculated as the sum of XP rewards from each of the sub-pages. As you level you gain attribute points, which you can allocate to be displayed on a radar-chart. Sub-pages are task-specific views to record completion including: 1) Daily & Weekly Task Log, 2) Travel Log, 3) Quest Log & 4) Bestiary. The gallery below will allow you to scroll through previews of each page.