Why It Works

Make your tasks as easy as playing a video game

by Laurie Hérault

Are you also the kind of person who can procrastinate on simple tasks for days, but still stay intensely focused on video games for 4 hours in a row? That paradox frustrated me for years, until I began to understand what made some games so addictive for me and changed the way I structured my work.

The article is divided into three distinct parts: we will break down what makes a video game engaging to extract five principles, see how to apply those five principles to our tasks to make them feel as easy as playing a game, and explore a digital solution that greatly reduces the friction of this method.

1Five principles
2How to apply
3Digital solution

Why games keep you moving

What defines a video game is not its story, music, or visual design, but its InputFeedback loop. The player presses a key on their keyboard or controller, and the game responds to that input by giving immediate feedback in visual, audio, or haptic form.

Of course, moving a pixel on a screen with the arrow keys is not what makes a video game addictive. There can be different loops in a game, some directly connected to the initial input, while others may be the consequence of other loops. Here is a very limited example from a role-playing game:

The most important idea for understanding the first principle is that the frequency of these loops is crucial.

Every loop is a task

Now, to understand why this concept matters, let us take Far Cry as an example. If you have never played Far Cry, the idea is simple: you are dropped into a huge territory controlled by enemies. It is an open world, and you are free to follow the main quest, do optional side quests, free areas controlled by enemies, hunt animals to collect skins, and craft items that improve your character, and so on. Far Cry is basically a giant task list.

To keep players engaged, each task usually shares four key characteristics:

  • Quick: It can be completed in a short amount of time.
  • Well-defined: Its goal, scope, and expected outcome are clear.
  • Easy to start: It feels approachable, not overwhelming, and takes little effort to begin.
  • Ready-to-go: Everything needed is already in place, including materials and prerequisites.

If these elements are in place, you'll get hooked and naturally move from task to task.

Feedback design

The design of feedback in a video game can make the difference between a game you keep playing and a game you never touch again. In a shooting game, when you aim, shoot, and hit your target, you receive instant positive feedback: a visual effect on the target, a satisfying sound that confirms the hit, a change in the cursor, and more.

This is not anecdotal. The most addictive games are often the ones with the best feedback design. Every enemy you kill is an atomic task, and every atomic task is another opportunity to give more feedback to the player.

The feeling of progress

Because each task brings you closer to your goal, and because these atomic tasks happen so often, the game gives you a constant feeling of progress. If you feel like you are not making progress, your motivation drops. That feeling of progress is essential to maintaining strong motivation.

You can reinforce it even more by making progress visible. Video games do this in many different ways: progress bars, a quest log, achievements, a list of completed challenges, or changes on the map, such as conquered areas. Showing progress is feedback.

The right level of challenge

It is very important for a video game's level of challenge to match the player's skill level. If it is too easy or too difficult, the player gets bored or gives up.

But let us take the example of a game you have already finished. Playing it again in the same way would be boring. However, if you add an extra challenge, such as time pressure, it gives you a new reason to play again. This idea is so engaging that thousands of players around the world challenge themselves to beat speed records through speedrunning.

Quality of life

The last point may seem superficial, but it can truly ruin the gaming experience.

The current task, your progress, and any time pressure should stay visible at all times. If you have to open one menu to know what you need to do, and another menu to know your character level, engagement drops. You can also simply forget what you were doing.

How to apply these principles

To start, it is important to understand that the duration of an atomic task is flexible. If tasks are boring, make them more attractive by keeping atomic tasks very short, for example 5 minutes. If you enjoy the project, larger tasks of 20-30 minutes or more will not be a problem. The most boring tasks are usually ones we perform regularly or as habits. We can therefore easily prepare a list of atomic tasks in advance and reuse them.

There is one rule: the more you procrastinate, the smaller the steps should be.

Let's take a task as an example and break it down into atomic tasks:

Each atomic task in this list is quick and well-defined.

Each task is also easy to start, because each one only takes a few minutes and is not overwhelming.

Each task is also ready-to-go. For example, by the time you reach "Pay the internet bill," you will already have the bill at hand thanks to the previous task: "Find the internet bill for this month."

Because the first task and the ones that follow are atomic, it will be much easier to get started. And each completed task will build momentum to keep going until the end.

No matter what tool you use to manage your tasks, software or pen and paper, you will get more feedback and a stronger sense of progress because you complete several small tasks instead of one large one.

If your task list is especially boring, you can add time pressure by setting a time goal or using a method like Pomodoro. Of course, if this creates too much anxiety, do not use it. And avoid using time pressure in any environment that could be dangerous for you or for others.

Checking a box in task management software is feedback. But if you want to reinforce that feedback, write each task on a small piece of paper or a sticky note instead. Once a task is done, you can crumple the paper into a ball. You feel it in your hands, you hear it, and the result is more tangible and satisfying than simply checking a box on a screen.

The second advantage is that you can place the task in front of you while you work on it, so it stays always-visible in your field of view.

The third advantage is that you can use a transparent jar to collect completed tasks and make your progress visible.

Why most task tools fail when you procrastinate

It's important to remember that you don't need any software to use this method. However, printing the tasks or breaking them down into dozens of atomic tasks would add a welcome layer of comfort.

When I looked for software to implement the five principles (atomic tasks, progress, feedback, time pressure, and always-visible), I ran into a problem. There is no perfect application to manage this. Overall, we can identify five main issues:

  • Overwhelming lists
    Given the number of tasks involved, you often end up with huge lists or deep task trees. You spend your time scrolling, getting lost in the list, and the whole thing quickly becomes overwhelming.
  • Calendar-first
    The problem is even more obvious with calendar-based task managers. And beyond that, fine-grained time planning tends to break down in real life: priorities shift, interruptions happen, and the plan collapses, leaving you with frustration and guilt.
  • Metadata-first workflows
    Dates, tags, priorities, and other fields can be useful, but when they become mandatory for every tiny task, filling them in becomes an easy way to avoid the work.
  • Ergonomics
    A common problem is the speed of these tools. On top of the metadata, if creating a task takes several dozen seconds, that adds terrible friction when you need to create many atomic tasks.
  • Momentum
    Most tools are very good at planning tasks, but they are not designed to create momentum during execution.

To be clear, the point here is not to say that these tools are useless. In many cases, they are even the best solution. But for managing solo work where you need to stay focused, they are not always the best fit.

How to solve these problems

Since I could not find an app that suited me, I decided to create it myself. After several years of working on different prototypes, I finally found a solution that worked. I called this app Colonnes. "Columns" in French.

A view that prevents overwhelm

Instead of a long, intimidating tree, Colonnes uses a column view inspired by macOS Finder (Miller columns). You only see what matches your current context, so even a project with 1,000 tasks stays navigable and not overwhelming.

To better understand this concept, here is a classic task tree with tasks everyone has:

And now here are the same tasks in this small interactive demo. The demo is limited to three levels, but Colonnes supports many more. Click on an item in the first column and its children will appear in the second column:

Less metadata, more action

At its core, an atomic task in Colonnes stays simple: a clear text description and a status, done or not done. This keeps the execution loop lightweight: less metadata, more action.

If an item contains child tasks, it becomes a task group. Instead of a checkbox, it shows progress based on the completion of its child tasks.

Tags, colors, and deadlines are available when they clarify the work: for example to group tasks by context, highlight blocked items, or plan what belongs on a specific day. They are optional layers around the task, not requirements you must fill in before you can start.

The width of the columns reinforces this simplicity by encouraging concise task descriptions. If a task no longer fits clearly, the interface naturally encourages you to break it down into a new column.

Break tasks down fast

Speed matters. If breaking down tasks feels slow, you will not do it consistently. That is why Colonnes has two complementary modes:

  • Selection mode to navigate and reorganize tasks like a file explorer
  • Edit mode that turns the columns into a fast text editor, similar to Word or Notion, so you can write tasks at high speed

Colonnes works fully with the mouse, but you can also use it partly or entirely with the keyboard for maximum efficiency.

Focus, One Task at a Time

Colonnes has an execution mode called Stack. It helps you focus by guiding you through tasks sequentially. The current task stays always-visible, progress is always shown, and you can add optional time pressure, with a fixed duration, an end time, or Pomodoro.

There are two different modes:

Local Stack keeps a small always-on-top window on your desktop

Remote Stack mirrors the same Stack on your phone via a QR code, turning your phone into a simple next-action copilot, instead of a distraction machine

Stronger feedback, optional but powerful

If you want maximum tangible feedback, Colonnes can print each atomic task on a thermal receipt printer1 (like the kind you might see in a supermarket) or a standard printer (in that case, you will need to cut the paper with scissors). When you finish a task, you can physically crumple the receipt and drop it into a transparent jar, making progress visible, physical, and satisfying.

Colonnes printed task flow demo

Summary

  • Column view: Perfect for atomic tasks, and it helps you avoid overwhelming lists.
  • Atomic tasks with minimal fields: Keep execution lightweight, with tags and deadlines available only when they clarify what to do.
  • Selection and Edit mode: Write, break down, and reorganize atomic tasks very quickly.
  • Task groups with progress: Progress becomes visible automatically, across multiple levels.
  • Stack: The next action always-visible, momentum stays steady and time pressure is optional.
  • Printed tasks: Stronger tangible feedback, and tasks that stay always-visible and are hard to ignore.

Get started

Available for Mac and Windows2, Colonnes runs locally on your computer using your own files, ensuring speed and privacy3. Version 1 is available as a one-time purchase with no subscription, and includes a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Important notes

1 If you decide to buy a receipt printer, follow the purchasing advice in the Support section to make sure the printer is compatible with your operating system and with Colonnes. Back to text

2 We are currently working on a Linux version. Back to text

3 Remote Stack requires an internet connection and anonymous data sharing through a cloud server to link two devices. Back to text