Why do people donate their time and creative thought process to Wikipedia? Or the open source movement? When you stop and think about it, you realize that there are many activities that people engage in, even over a long period of time, that require high expertise, and yet offer no monetary or even career-building benefit. People like to feel that they are making progress. They like to feel that they are learning and mastering
new knowledge and skills.
SMALL SIGNS OF PROGRESS CAN HAVE A BIG EFFECT
Because mastery is such a powerful motivator, even small signs of progress can have a
large effect in motivating people to move forward to the next step in a task. At Facebook, they encourage you to finish filling in information on your profile by showing you how much information you have already answered
Facebook shows you profile completing progress
If you want to build loyalty and have repeat customers (for example, repeat visitors to
your Web site), you’ll need to have activities that people inherently want to do (such as connecting with their friends, or mastering something new), rather than just activities for which people are getting paid.
Takeaways
1- If people have to do a task that’s boring, you can help motivate them by acknowledging that it’s boring and then letting them do it their own way.
2- Look for ways to help people set goals and track them.
3- Show people how they’re progressing toward goals.
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