Two weeks ago I put out the following tweet:

That was my last original tweet for six days because that was the amount of time it took me to break the spell Stardew Valley put on me.

The first two and a half days were better than any drug trip I could imagine (this is where my lack of drug experience shows). I had gone to another world and was completely disconnected from my life, Earth and my body. Not eating for 20 hours? No problem. I was hyper-focused and in an all-encompassing state of flow.

When games like Stardew Valley hypnotize me, I’m always puzzled: Stardew Valley is basically a life/work simulation game. The following gives you some idea what I’m talking about.

In Stardew Valley you are a young man/woman (your choice) who has just inherited a farm from their grandfather. When you move to the farm, however, you find that you need to do a complete overhaul of the farm: Weeds and trees have grown everywhere, rocks and logs are in the way. You start with only a little bit of money, no social contacts and no farming skills whatsoever. Your goal is to make the farm flourish, solve the mysteries of the village and get some chick or dude to marry you (there are no set goals, though, and you choose whatever you want to pursue).

Mostly you’re going to be busy working. For example, if you want to plant some new seeds, you have to grab a hoe, clear the soil, put in the seed and water it. Repeat that 10 times or 50 times or 200 times, depending on how many seeds you have at your disposal. If you’re in the later stage of the game, there are tons of routine tasks to do every day: harvest, feed and pet the animals, pick up eggs, milk the cows and check various machines for their produce. And yes, you have to do most of it manually.

Does this look like fun? ’Cause for some reason it is!

The challenge of the game is about how productive and organized you are. The smarter you choose your daily tasks (and the layout of your farm), the faster you will achieve your goals.

Now what’s puzzling to me is this:

How come a game without any real incentive (no, a virtual collection of differently designed scarecrows is not a “real” incentive) and that is about WORK and HAVING A SOCIAL LIFE (and a few other things) can have me so fully hooked that I lose my need to eat for 3 days when real life, which is also about WORK and HAVING A SOCIAL LIFE (and a few other things), apparently leaves me so uninterested that I have to check Facebook every 15 minutes to feel okay?

And also: Why do I have so much control over my productivity in this game when I don’t feel like I have that in real life?

The first part of what follows is going to be a little philosophical, and after that you will find a list of concrete productivity lessons that I got from playing the game.

Why being productive in real life is so hard

When I took a break from playing the game after two and a half days, the question really hit me: Why am I able to be so productive in this game when it’s so hard for me to get things done in real life? The answer that popped into my mind: ’Cause in the game you don’t have a body and in real life you do.

Let me explain.

The biggest difference in how I felt when I was playing vs. when I was not playing was that when I was so hooked on the game I didn’t notice I had a body. That’s the reason why I forgot to eat. If I didn’t know any better, I could have just been a floating head in front of the computer — although it would have been a little difficult to use a mouse like that. I think everybody recognizes this feeling; it is also called flow, and I will get back to this later. But first I want to focus on this:

What is it about having a body that makes us so unproductive?

Feelings.

In real life when you’re confronted with a task or situation, your body will react. And your body reacts in the form of feelings:

This sucks.

This is exciting.

This is boring.

This is uncomfortable.

I am scared of this.

In a game like Stardew Valley there is no reason for our bodies to get too involved. For example, there is nothing particularly uncomfortable in the game: Our real life bodies don’t get exhausted from planting seeds all day or from carrying the virtual watering can around.

There is also no reason to be afraid when playing a game like Stardew Valley. Even if our character dies, that’s an inconvenience at best and we might feel a little annoyed — but it’s not enough to stop us from playing. Unlike real life, there are no big stakes in video games. So what if we pissed off some villagers by gifting them slimy monster balls? We don’t need to worry about the outcome because it won’t affect us in real life.

Our bodies apparently understand this difference and decide to not shackle us with emotions while playing. In fact, I think, when I was playing, my body was like: “Hey, it’s great she’s not doing anything that’s dangerous to me. Instead she’s challenging herself intellectually a little bit, which isn’t too bad — so I will just give her small doses of dopamine every now and then so she won’t quit and maybe she’ll never do something dangerous like living her life again.” Yes, my body is pretty wily.

How to become more productive by learning from Stardew Valley

Now, the question is: Is there anything we can learn from this and the game in general or do we just have to take it as it is? Well, the article is called “Productivity Lessons from Stardew Valley”, so you probably have an idea where this is going.

1) Be aware of your feelings

First of all, the biggest insight I gained from playing Stardew Valley is to be more aware of my feelings. My feelings are why I’m often not productive when I could be — so instead of just compulsively trying to distract myself from them (which doesn’t solve the problem), it makes more sense to look for a way to deal with them.

When it comes to feelings, there is no magic trick to make them go away. But acknowledging them, doing some journaling, losing logic to weaken them and even taking a nap (or eating a Snickers) can bring some relief. I really think accepting them is the most important thing, though. If you’re accepting your feelings, you’re choosing to not run away from them in that moment, which makes you stronger.

2) Get into the state of flow

I already mentioned the state of flow above. Here is why it matters so much: Flow is a temporary high that makes you forget your feelings. Flow is that state you get in when you’re concentrating intensively and are so into something that suddenly 15 hours are gone and you forgot to congratulate your mom on her birthday and now she’s asleep and you can’t wake her. It’s the exact state I was in for these first two and a half days of playing and it’s exactly why I wouldn’t stop.

A good game is supposed to put you in the state of flow. In fact, there is something out there called Flow Theory, which was created and named by the Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. It is actually how developers approach their game design.

In order to get into the state of flow there are some conditions that have to be met (at least that’s what the man with the long name claims). Let’s see if we can create them deliberately:

Rule #1: One must be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals and progress. This adds direction and structure to the task.

Sounds doable: We can set some clearly defined goals for pretty much every task. I think what many of us do is to not be very clear with the goals that we have right now. For example, we might say “I want to lose weight” or “I want to play less Stardew Valley.” These goals aren’t clear because we can’t measure if we’ve achieved them or not. If you want to lose weight and you just found out that you lost one gram, have you achieved your goal? Well, you might have, but that would make you a little weird if you’re not an ant.

Sometimes when I need to measure something intangible, I measure it by the time I put in or give it a rating on a scale from 1–10.

How this is implemented in Stardew Valley: Quests, money, hearts, etc.

You’d better have a reason to stand around aimlessly.

Rule #2: The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback. This helps the person negotiate any changing demands and allows them to adjust their performance to maintain the flow state.

This can be a little difficult with some tasks, for example if you’ve practiced a song on the guitar for three hours and now it sounds worse than before (but maybe I’m doing it wrong). But I guess the key is to try to find feedback even if it’s small. One way you can get feedback is by getting other people involved. Instead of writing a novel and keeping the drafts in your drawer, you could publish some chapters online where other people can comment and like. Or in the case of learning a skill, you might want to hire a teacher who can give you feedback on your progress.

How this is implemented in Stardew Valley: Crops grow almost daily, you get your money every day (or immediately if you choose to sell at a shop), villagers react to your gifts, popularity rankings change immediately after gifting, etc.

Rule #3: One must have a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and their own perceived skills. One must have confidence in one’s ability to complete the task at hand.

This is actually the most famous flow condition:

Your task must not be too easy (creates boredom and apathy) or too difficult (creates anxiety and worry) compared to your skill level.

It’s also important to note he wrote “perceived” skills — that means it’s not only important that you have skills, it’s also vital that you believe in them.

I guess this is a condition that many of us don’t incorporate into our lives. In fact, I think we tend to believe we are powerless when it comes to this rule. We assume this task has difficulty level X but our skills are at skill level Y, so it just doesn’t match. What we don’t see is that we can often influence the perceived difficulty of a task by redefining it. Here are some examples:

It’s very difficult to write a book but it’s pretty easy to write a draft of a paragraph.

Running a marathon if you’ve never exercised will be pretty difficult, but running for ten minutes might be just the perfect challenge.

If you have to translate 1,000 phrases from French into English, you might be bored with it. But if you have to do it in 3 hours, it might suddenly become the right kind of challenge.

The reason why we find some things too difficult or easy is because we set our goals to high or low. We take on too much at once or think too big, and sometimes we think too small and don’t do enough to keep us challenged. Simply setting smaller goals or adding a challenge like time pressure can help us to create flow.

How this is implemented in Stardew Valley: Good game balance. Also, the fact that you are able to choose between different activities and skills, so if you feel like one thing is too hard, you can work on something else.

There is another condition to flow that was suggested by Owen Schaffer in 2013: Freedom from distractions.

I guess he added that because he has a phone (’cause these things are crazy!). I think nobody really has “freedom from distractions” in the sense that there are no distractions. They always exist. So it’s your task to remove yourself from them as much as possible (put your phone on silent, ask people to not interrupt you), in order to have a much higher success rate with getting into and staying in the flow.

How this is implemented in Stardew Valley: There aren’t any real distractions in Stardew Valley. Everything in the game has a purpose.

Obviously, these tips are just suggestions and you might come up with better ideas to integrate the principles of flow into your life.

This is already the end of my main points. However, I still had a few other insights while playing (and while I was thinking about playing), so I want to share them with you as well:

8 productivity insights from Stardew Valley

1) Be aware that your time is limited

One thing that really helps me focus on specific goals in Stardew Valley is the limited amount of time every day. If you want to get shit done, you have to use your time purposefully. Just like in life you can’t do it all, so you’ve got to know what you need to do and what you can let go. In life it’s easy to lose that feeling and pretend that your time is unlimited. It is not!

2) Always know the bigger goal

I’ve got to say that if Stardew Valley was more like Flappy Bird and it was all about reaching a certain score in a short amount of time, I probably wouldn’t be motivated to play it. Millions of players might see this differently, but to me it’s really important to have bigger goals which remind me that there is more to it than the daily grind: there is development.

I’ll tell you a little secret: The first few hours I played Stardew Valley, I wasn’t even hooked. It took me a while until I had an understanding of what my goals would be until I truly enjoyed watering parsnip (okay, I’ve never enjoyed watering parsnip). The times I felt most hypnotized by the game were always when I was working on a big goal that would take a few days or even weeks to achieve. In life it’s easy to lose sight of those bigger goals. Tasks can be so overwhelming, schedules so busy, that they slip away. And then we’re wondering why we’re not motivated?

3) Every day is kinda different

In Stardew Valley, some days are lucky, some not. Some bring sun, some bring rain. Instead of planning everything and trying to stick to a schedule, it often makes sense to see how the day fits your goals.

4) Some routine is good

Just like some flexibility is good, some routine is good as well. For example, in Stardew Valley I will always check first if there is anything to harvest, then I feed the animals and then I check the rest of the farm. That way I make sure that the most important things get done first. This also helps me to get clarity on my thoughts since it gave me a structure to follow. I’m not much of a fan of too much routine in real life (and in games!) since I get bored super-fast. But maybe it’s about the right balance of routine tasks and freedom that makes the difference.

5) Think long term

In Stardew Valley, you suck in the beginning: You have no money, no skills, nothing really. It takes a long time until you finally feel like you’re making substantial progress. It’s a good reminder that in life, too, most things take a while to pay off. A new business is usually not sustainable right away; you won’t be a master pianist after practicing for six months and it takes years to choose your first great haircut (that might just be me again). In the times where you haven’t achieved significant success, it’s important to focus on the things that will really make an impact in the long term. In Stardew Valley it’s all about planting the right seeds — in life maybe, too.

6) Find out what works and repeat

Over time you will learn which activities are especially worth your time and which ones aren’t. Keep doing what’s effective and minimize what isn’t.

7) Don’t forget your social life

In Stardew Valley it’s easy to get carried away by the busywork of running your farm. Then you might forget that the game has another side, too: the social side. In life we’re often focusing on productivity as if work was the only thing that was important. In reality, you don’t wanna miss your social life because it would mean you have less fun and fulfilment overall. Also, people are super useful in reaching you goals, in a game and in life. ;)

Bonus insight: Facebook feels like the opposite of flow

After my first 33 hours in Stardew I noticed how focused my brain felt. I loved it! That feeling went away pretty quickly, though, when I started surfing on Facebook for a few minutes. When I was playing, my brain felt sharp like a spear that was pointing at something. When I scrolled through Facebook, my brain started to feel more like an egg that had been cracked and was now all flat and sizzling in a pan. It was like…blergh.

The difference was pretty huge, and every time I open Facebook now I’m aware of what I’m doing with my brain (and that insight hopefully helps me escape faster).

These are my pop-psychologically infused insights. Interestingly enough, I’ve been in flow for 80% of the time I’ve been writing this. Maybe my brain is getting used to it?

Let me know your thoughts, ideas, theories and insights in the comments! Have you become a better person by playing Stardew Valley? Me neither! But maybe someone else has. Dear someone else, please let us know how you did that in the comments.

P.S. You can’t marry Robin? Virtual life is cruel!