

Ask HN: Get paid cash to get shit done?! TaskUp, the task list that does. - aioprisan

Task / To-do list suck at motivating users to get shit done.<p>After contemplating the idea of task-based incentives, here’s a cash-based strategy we propose:<p>1. monetary rewards the customers upon timely task completion and<p>2. penalties when tasks become overdue<p>Every completed task is rewarded with $0.10 and every task that becomes ‘overdue’ is penalized at 3x the reward.<p>For instance, creating 8 tasks in the morning that are due today and only end up completing 7, the day end balance would be $0.40.<p>In other words, you would get paid $0.40 that day:<p>Completed Tasks: 7 * $0.10 = $0.70<p>Incomplete Tasks: 1 * $0.30 = $0.30<p>Day Total = $0.40<p>(Considering 20 business days) Total customer gain = $0.40 * 20 = $8/month<p>Question 1: Would you use a task app that has a simple and intuitive workflow, incentivizes you with $$$ to get shit done, and has NO monthly subscription fees?<p>Question 2: As far as the reward/punishment multiplier, the 3x multiplier is just a starting point. We’re also exploring a self sustainable model in which incomplete task dollars are used to reward completed tasks. Also, instead of community redistribution, we could also base the multiplier on the amount of money that the user him/herself has given to us, giving customers a chance to make up more money faster as they get more behind on tasks, motivating them to get on track faster.<p>Question 3: Are there any downsides to the revenue model proposed whereby our best case is when our users have all incomplete tasks and lose a bunch of money? We are looking this from an ethical lens, and a long-term company strategy.
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johnmurch
I really like the idea of gamification when it comes to business and love this
approach. Rather than asking HN if you would do this, build a light weight
version and test it - even if it sites at another domain - throw some paid at
it and see if you can get 20 people to opt-in.

As for rev model and long term - what other things could you
incoporate/affiliate like [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/18/maneesh-
sethi-blogg...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/18/maneesh-sethi-
blogger-hires-craigslist-slapper-to-hit-him-unproductive_n_1980274.html) \-
could something like this scale?

Or partner with <http://www.fancyhands.com/> as a lead-gen model for them -
help move tasks into outsourcing

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diveshg
I really enjoyed that huffingtonpost read, and I often struggle with keeping
myself accountable and that's why I now either a) Work very closely with my
manager/director so I have the pressure or b) Sign groups of people up to do
stuff that I want done i.e. Gym classes.

The model described above definitely addresses the topic, and I'd be willing
to give it a try.

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aioprisan
For the full post and preventing misuse cases, check out the rest of the post
in our blog: [http://blog.taskup.com/index.php/2012/10/get-paid-to-get-
thi...](http://blog.taskup.com/index.php/2012/10/get-paid-to-get-things-done/)

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helen842000
So they put their own money up and when they complete a task they get their
own money back?

What's to stop people marking tasks as done (when they're not) to avoid any
losses?

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aioprisan
We would start off all accounts with a nominal positive ($1-$5) balance to
minimize friction and get people more comfortable with it. We would be paying
users, in the long term from their own money that they put into the system.

We blogged about some of the cases to prevent misuse, here they are: Case 1:
What if users create hundreds of tasks and just check off tasks to cash in
without actually being more productive? We could limit rapid fire task
creation to a few tasks per minute. Some backend NLP process would assign a
spammer rank to new tasks, allowing us to temporarily suspend rewards if we
believe the customer is just trying to game the system.

Case 2: Even so, users could easily make hundreds of dollars each week if they
just create tasks and check them off at regular intervals. How would you
prevent that? We could cap weekly rewards to around $10/month and penalties to
$20/month.

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markoa
Very basic question - who creates the tasks and who is supposed to work on
them? Who are these people, colleagues, friends, strangers...?

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aioprisan
The account holder would create tasks for themselves, as well as checking
tasks off. Shortly, we'll add options for accepting/rejecting tasks being
created for customers by others (collaboration), but we're still working out
the permissions for that piece.

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aioprisan
Check out our task list app at <https://taskup.com>

