Is it possible to turn goals into a game?

My review of the self-care app, “Finch”

Stefan's eyes narrow as he watches me tap away happily on my phone. “You know, I think you’re having an affair with Frankie.”

I laugh because I know he’s teasing me.

Out with the old and in with the new

Frankie is my “birb” or pet character on the self-care app, Finch. For those of you who are old enough to remember the 90s Tamagotchi craze, imagine a virtual pet that you care for through your phone by completing various activities. Except, instead of mashing buttons on a plastic bauble, you complete self-care and productivity goals to give your birb energy to send them out on adventures or create rainbow stones to buy customizations like outfits or stuff for their house.

It is, on the surface, a little ridiculous, but it docks into some surprisingly effective motivation tools.

The carrot vs the stick

Most folks assume that the best way to get through their to-do list is to mentally whip themselves into action. This “stick” method is often paired with internal shaming behaviour like…

• Make your bed! If you don’t make your bed, then everyone will think you’re a slob.

• Get that important email sent or folks will think you’re unreliable!

• You missed your medications again? You’re never going to get healthy at this rate!

The stick method is exhausting and not terribly effective because it sucks the motivation and joy out of doing anything—even activities that you are ostensibly doing for your own good.

At its heart, Finch is driven by a “carrot” method of motivation. Every completed goal gives you a few lightning bolts of energy and a few rainbow stones of currency. The more goals you complete, the more you can develop and grow your character. Here are some examples of goals suggested by the app:

• Write down the first step of your task

• Eat a meal without using your phone or watching TV

• Reflect on one small thing you did well today

• Take a stretch break

• Replace “I should” with “I choose to”

You can also easily create your own goals that can be scheduled daily, weekly or at whatever frequency you like. In the two weeks that I’ve used the app, it has effectively replaced the Reminders app on my phone and I’m now tracking a wide variety of activities. These include practical basics like watering the plants and taking my morning, afternoon and evening medications to fun stuff like playing an uplifting song at some point during the day.

The power of high-value treats

One of the most important things that I need to be doing now that I’m out of the hospital is my physiotherapy exercises. I’ve never been a fan of physio and one of the reasons that I decided to try Finch was to motivate me to do some of these less-than-exciting post-discharge activities.

I started by adding “Do physio exercises” as one of my Finch goals, but it quickly became obvious that this was the goal that I was the most likely to skip.

Why do a slew of exhausting exercises that would leave me aching afterward for three rainbow stones when I could much more easily take my vitamins for the same number of stones?

I decided that if I was going to effectively motivate myself into doing these physio exercises they would need to have a higher value in the app.

Folks who have done dog training may be familiar with the phrase “high-value treats.” If you’re training your puppy in a calm situation with few distractions, then a few pieces of their regular kibble may be enough of a motivator. If, however, you’re trying to motivate good behaviour while many other distracting things are going on—dogs to play with, people to greet, bicycles to chase and so on—you will likely need a better value treat.

Puppy Lucy demonstrating her intense cheese focus (2021)

For Lucy, we use both training treats and pieces of cheese for those super tough, distracting situations.

To get through my physio exercises, I was going to need my own version of cheese.

I decided to increase the value of physio by breaking out every exercise into its own goal. This turned my physio routine from a three rainbow stone activity to one that had the potential to generate 33 stones if I did every exercise on my list.

As an added benefit, if I decided to skip a particular exercise because I felt I was too sore to complete it without hurting myself, I can also record the reason as a written “Reflection”—which also grants a few stones. Since I was previously tracking which exercises I was completing in a separate Google spreadsheet, this allowed me to replace that tracking system with Finch as well.

Customizations and creativity

So, what do you do with all these lightning bolts of energy and rainbow stones that you are generating by completing your goals? You collect fun stuff with them.

Even though these are all virtual items for your virtual character, it is surprisingly fun to collect and switch them out at a whim. There are new items that appear each day as well as old standbys that you can collect in different colours.

Playing with outfits and interior design

I quickly latched on to some of their steampunk items for Frankie’s travelling adventurer look and cozy birdhouse. Others who have used the app far longer than I have will focus on collecting everything in a particular colour or theme. Still others will mix and match endlessly and even create their own interpretation of popular characters. I think my favourite I’ve seen thus far was someone who created a birb version of Tom Cruise’s character Maverick from the “Top Gun” movies.

The lighting bolts you get from your tasks can be used to energize your birb for adventures. These adventures allow your character to grow from Baby to Toddler, Toddler to Child and so on. They can also hatch mini pets on these adventures too. Frankie recently hatched a turtle that I, of course, had to dub Horace after Stefan’s alter ego from our old webcomic.

The possibilities are endless… which is kind of the point. It keeps you coming back to the app and, by extension, your list of goals that you wish to accomplish.

Also, as someone who previously used food rewards as motivation (eg. if I get through this frustrating task I’ll buy myself a mocha), I recognize the value of having a motivator that doesn’t lead to unhealthy dietary or spending habits.

Free vs paid version of the app

To be completely transparent, I did pay the annual subscription for the app (roughly $50/yr) before I realized that you can use it quite effectively for free. From what I understand, the difference is that free subscribers miss out on some customization options like being able to choose the emoji icon to represent their goal and they are more limited the daily rotation of outfits and room items they can choose from.

Final thoughts

I learned about Finch when I was doomscrolling through Instagram a couple weeks ago. The speaker in the ad claimed that they’d been using the app for a year, they’d reduced their social media time and were getting so much more done. I was pretty skeptical—particularly about the social media claim. Still, the character looked cute and I had spent a lot of time over the years creating outfits for my World of Warcraft characters.

Two weeks in… my social media time is way down, I’m much better at remembering to take all my meds and I’m creating my daily “Done Lists” right within the app.

All in all, Frankie for the win!

---

Athena is currently on medical leave from creativity coaching with Tilted Windmills as she continues to regain her strength, but hopes to be back to coaching later this year. You can read about her ongoing rehab journey in Athena’s Art Newsletter.

---