Video Transcript
July 8th is Video Game Day. I have been a huge gamer since the Atari times. Also, I have passed that love to my son and daughter. Video games have always been in the news for not the best reasons. People think that it has caused people to commit crimes and other things. As with anything, there are pros and cons, not everything will be great, and not everything will be bad.
And that’s the same thing with video games. So I wanted to highlight how video games have made me even more productive. Yes, they have. And they’ve actually helped me with my stress. And so, let’s go ahead and get started talking about how video games are great for your productivity and help you take away some of that stress. So I’ll focus on productivity first. So video games have been great in doing that because it gives me something to look forward to. So, usually, I’ll play video games on the weekends. And what I do is use the Pomodoro method. If you’ve never heard of that, that’s usually having different time intervals and then taking a break in between. So I use my video games to take a break; I’ll have a timer on how I do it if I play video games for 30 minutes.
When that timer goes off, I’ll go do something that I need to get done for an hour. And then I continue that process, and believe me, just knowing that I’ll be able to play 30 minutes of the game that I just got definitely makes me focus for that hour because I know that I will have the 30 minutes to play. And I don’t know, for some reason, just having that reward after a time that I’m focused on doing something productive really, really helps. So that is one way that I’ve used video games to be productive. I use it as a reward for myself when I get what I need to get done accomplished. Video games are also great for de-stressing. There have been studies done that have said that mobile games primarily have been great in helping people with traumatic stress.
They think they do that is because they enter a state of flow. So you’re focused on that video game. And so you’re not having those constant thoughts that are causing you stress. And I know that I do that. I am a colossal candy crush lover, and that’s the fault of my niece, who got me into candy crush. And it has helped, especially when I’m feeling super stressed after I get whatever done that I need to get done. So I’ll play five minutes of candy crush. And for some reason, that helps me focus on the game that I’m playing. And then I’m not sitting there still thinking about what happened that stressed me out. And so I do think that video games are also great for that. They can be a way for you to escape, but you just have to be very self-aware to know when you’re using video games too much to escape if that makes any sense.
I think that, like everything, there is a balance that you have to maintain. And if you can maintain that balance, you can use video games to help you focus and escape for a little bit. And then you’re able to feel a little bit less stressed, and then you can move on to the rest of your day. And that’s the way that I’ve been using candy crush. And that’s the only mobile game that I play. And it’s easy because I have my phone nearby and I can just pick it up. But, unlike with the video game consoles, I have to leave my office and then go down there to play the game. And that’s the reason I just limit it to the weekends. And there have been studies done that have indicated that video games do increase your productivity by 20%. And the reason being so is because it’s like exercise for your brain and even senior citizens.
I have heard of some studies that have been trying to use video games for senior citizens, especially those dealing with dementia and Alzheimer’s. And the reason why is because they feel like video games exercise your brain, and it actually helps activate parts of your brain that usually you don’t activate if you’re not playing; some of the ways are that you are having to sustain your attention and then as well as you become more alert and less time to get that focus attention. And that helps as well when you’re doing very demanding tasks, and other studies have also said that video games help people sift through all the information. We’ve all heard of information overload. People who play video games can sift through information quicker and assess which ones are actually needed at which ones aren’t. So that also helps with your productivity and getting things done quicker. And as you can tell, I am a huge gamer.
I love video games so much, and I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have video games, because as I said, it’s a type of reward for me. And that, to me, is great. And video games have also been great for my relationships with my kids. I play video games with my daughter. She’s usually the one that I play with because she plays the type of games I like. Like, I really prefer single-player. I’m not a multiplayer type of gamer. I prefer playing single-player games where there’s an actual story behind it. And then, even though my son is more of a multiplayer, single shooter type of gamer, it’s still nice to talk to him about different video games that are coming out. We offer, we do like our own little analysis, and it’s just nice. So it all has also helped with bonding with my kids.
You can tell that we’re a video game family, but video games are great. I’m excited that there is a video game day that is there. I don’t know if maybe there’ll be different types of deals out there, and maybe the PlayStation five will be available somewhere because it’s been hard trying to find one, but I just love video games. So let me know if you’re someone who plays video games, how you’re using it, has it helped your productivity? Have you seen that you can focus better because of the video games you’re playing? I would love to know. And if there is a video that came out there that you love and you can share with me, I’ll also love that.
