As the title implies, expecting a reward can be a good incentive to increase efficiency, some companies do it to get better productivity from their employees in exchange of some advantages. But I’m not here to talk about getting employees more productive, I’m here to make ourselves more efficient in general. Because we have projects, tasks, and many things that we need and want done, but can’t seem to actually complete.
So why not use that trick on ourselves? Because just the fact of having some side projects that we care deeply about may not be enough to squeeze some work out of ourselves after a long day/week at our “real” job. We have to find ways to motivate ourselves to put that effort. This is especially true if the outcome is vague. I may want to create a specific piece of art, but what will be the outcome? It will most likely not make me rich and famous just by itself, it won’t make me that much of a better or happier person either (maybe a little more I hope). So I can’t rely on the possible outcome to get motivation.
Which is why I could treat myself to a reward for progressing and completing the project, by getting myself a tangible result. The reward itself can be anything, as long as we want it enough to try to get it. It could be a dinner in a fancy restaurant, some product that we want to buy or even something like getting a massage session or whatever, as long as we consider it valuable enough compared to the effort that we have to provide.
My treat for doing my day to day tasks is to allow myself to play video games. For example, during the weekend, I will define a set of things that I want to achieve on each day, then if I manage to complete them, I will then have the rest of the day to play some games (or do some more tasks if I feel like it). So during the day, my eagerness to play games will fuel my motivation to do my not-so-fun tasks.
It can be done at different levels too, I gave a daily example, but it could very well be applied on a weekly or monthly basis, or some other time interval that may fit better with a particular project. We should just make sure to have a reward of comparable value to the amount of work that is to be invested. Taking my previous example, if I only treat myself to a gaming evening for a whole month of work, the reward will not feel as much of a reward compared to the amount of work required to get there. A camping weekend or a visit to the spa may be more enticing.
One thing that is important to do though, is to clearly define what has to be accomplished in order for the task(s)/project(s) to be considered completed. Because in many cases, especially for bigger projects, the end may not be a fixed state. In such cases, it would be a good strategy to combine small periodic goals and rewards with a bigger one at the end of the whole project, so that we get small victories along the way to keep our motivation.