Let me tell you a story about how I became the top producer in the my department by applying gaming principles to my real-life job. As a long time MMO player, I always strive to be the best I can be at whatever game I play. This covers watching videos, reading guides, doing research, theory-crafting and testing. It also includes getting the best equipment I can find.
I was inspired by watching a YouTube video demonstrating the Razer Naga. The presenter was using his skills, moving, and controlling his camera at the same time without contorting his hands to make it happen. Naturally, I decided to pick one up after seeing this. The advantage gained from being able to physically do more than my opponent at once was immense. I also purchased a Razer Anansi, which is a keyboard where the modifier keys, Control, Alt, and Shift, were placed below the spacebar, also making it easier to do more at once.
Before my current job, I worked in a factory building computers for a major manufacturer. The major lesson from training was to complete the build with the least amount of physical movement possible. This did two things for the company. First, it allowed more computers to be built in a set amount of time. Second, it reduced the risk of injury to the workers. Both of these things meant significantly more money for the company.
Fast forward a few years. I now work from home and am able to use my gaming equipment to do my work. Remembering my time at the factory and my time gaming, I asked myself the all important question: “What if?” What if I used my gaming equipment to automate repetitive tasks and position keys so that I never, ever have to remove my right hand from the mouse and my left hand from the keyboard? I mean, that’s how I play games, so why wouldn’t it work for my job?
I began my experiment by thinking about what things I needed to move in order to minimize physical movement. I was (and still am as of this writing) employed as an insurance adjuster. The majority of notations I needed to make on claims were from standard notes just copied and pasted from a spreadsheet. Copy and Paste are Control-C and Control-V respectively by default, both of which can be done easily with the left hand, so no need to move them. Two keys I also used often were Enter and Backspace, both of which are located on the right side of the keyboard. In order to hit them, I would move my left hand across the keyboard. As an MMO veteran, this was not acceptable during my gaming, so I had no reason to accept it at work either. I rebound two of the extra keys on my mouse to Enter and Backspace which eliminated that movement altogether. My mouse had a number pad on it already, so I had no reason to take my right hand off the mouse in order to enter numbers.
This was a good start, but there was more I could do using macros. I could have simply used the mouse to click the items on the screen, but I’m not a clicker in game, so I refused to be one at work. I then began to think of shortcuts that would be annoying to do via typing and moved them to the macro buttons on my keyboard which I could easily hit with my left pinky finger. There were a few systems I used that made use of shortcuts using Control-U and Control-L and other combinations that would be weird to hit with my left hand. I could have used my right hand to hit them, but that was already on the mouse and my goal was to never move my hand off the mouse. Those combinations were perfect candidates for the macro buttons.
As a result of these modifications, I shortened actions that took a typical person five seconds to complete to half a second for me to complete. My productivity went from 120% of my goal to 150% of my goal, easily allowing me to take the top spot in my department while doing less actual physical work than any of my coworkers. The company was so impressed that they ordered some 8-button mice to test in the office using my methods. That ended up not working out as they hoped. They were not willing to drop the money that I did on my equipment, so they did not get the same results I achieved. I could completely understand though. The $200 I dropped on the keyboard and mouse almost bought an entire computer in the office. Oddly enough, the company paid back my investment in the equipment through increased bonuses. So ultimately, they ended up paying for mine anyway.
I remember reading that the idea for the drive through window at fast food restaurants came from a bank. An idea so familiar to us now came from the one person in one industry taking an idea from another industry. Gaming has a lot to offer other industries. I wonder who will be the ones to take advantage of those opportunities in the future.