Coaching practices for There Was This Hobby I Genuinely Loved Until I Started Tracking it and Tying Rewards to it and Now the Spark is Just Gone the Second the Points or Payoff Stop I Have No Desire to Do the Thing I Used to Do for Fun
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For There Was This Hobby I Genuinely Loved Until I Started Tracking it and Tying Rewards to it and Now the Spark is Just Gone the Second the Points or Payoff Stop I Have No Desire to Do the Thing I Used to Do for Fun, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- There was this hobby I genuinely loved until I started tracking it and tying rewards to it, and now the spark is just gone
- Everything I enjoy eventually gets turned into a side hustle or something to optimize and post about, and the moment I start measuring it the fun drains out
- The thing I once loved most has become pure obligation
- On paper nothing’s wrong
- I only ever do this for the points and rewards now, and I’ve noticed the day they’d stop is the day I’d quit
Practices that may help
- Protect intrinsic motivation from over-justification
Be careful with rewards on things you already enjoy — they can undermine the enjoyment.
Self-Determination Theory, Made Usable - Protect your play zone from performance pressure
Designate activities that stay purely intrinsic — never evaluated, rewarded, or tracked.
The Overjustification Effect: When Rewards Kill Motivation - Recover intrinsic interest after it has been crowded out
Intrinsic interest that has been undermined can often be partially recovered by removing the reward and reconnecting to original reasons.
The Overjustification Effect: When Rewards Kill Motivation - Monitor intrinsic interest over time
Overjustification is a slow erosion — check whether you still find the work interesting, not just whether you’re doing it.
The Overjustification Effect: When Rewards Kill Motivation - Fade the mechanics toward intrinsic motivation
Use game mechanics to start, then deliberately wean off them as the behavior becomes its own reward.
Gamification of Habits - Rotate bundles before they stop working
A bundle loses its pull when the want becomes associated with work rather than pleasure — rotate before that happens.
Temptation Bundling, Made Practical - Link developing interests to a sense of contribution
Interest that connects to helping others or solving real problems becomes more sustaining than interest that is purely self-contained.
Passion vs Interest: How to Actually Find Work You Love - Points and reward systems
Award yourself points for completing the habit, redeemable for real rewards.
Gamification of Habits - Connect activities to values, not just pleasure
Select activities that align with what matters to you, not just what feels good right now.
Behavioral Activation: Acting Your Way Out of Low Mood - Watch for overjustification — external rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation
For behaviors you already find intrinsically rewarding, adding external rewards can reduce your long-run motivation.
Contingency Management and Token Economies
Related concerns
- Habit Gamification Overjustification
Gamification adds points, levels, and quests to make a behavior more immediately rewarding and engaging, which can boost a habit in the short term. The serious caveat is the overjustification effect: when external rewards take over a behavior you already valued, they can crowd out the intrinsic motivation and leave you less interested once the points stop.
- Intrinsic Motivation Erosion
Overjustification is a slow erosion — check whether you still find the work interesting, not just whether you’re doing it.
Monitor intrinsic interest over time
- Intrinsic Vs Extrinsic Motivation What The Research Actually Shows When Burned Out
Intrinsic motivation means doing something because it is inherently interesting or satisfying; extrinsic motivation means doing it for a separable outcome (pay, praise, avoiding punishment). Research by Deci and Ryan shows that tangible, expected, contingent rewards can undermine intrinsic interest in already-enjoyable tasks — but the strong version ("all rewards harm") is contested. The practical question is: which kind of reward, for which task, under which conditions?
- The Overjustification Effect When Rewards Kill Motivation As A Parent
The overjustification effect is the finding that offering expected, tangible rewards for activities people already enjoy can undermine their subsequent interest in those activities once the reward is removed. Lepper, Greene, and Nisbett demonstrated this in children in 1973; later meta-analyses confirmed the effect is real for specific reward types, though the strong version of the claim — that any reward harms any intrinsic motivation — is overstated.
- The Overjustification Effect When Rewards Kill Motivation At Work
The overjustification effect is the finding that offering expected, tangible rewards for activities people already enjoy can undermine their subsequent interest in those activities once the reward is removed. Lepper, Greene, and Nisbett demonstrated this in children in 1973; later meta-analyses confirmed the effect is real for specific reward types, though the strong version of the claim — that any reward harms any intrinsic motivation — is overstated.
- The Overjustification Effect When Rewards Kill Motivation When Burned Out
The overjustification effect is the finding that offering expected, tangible rewards for activities people already enjoy can undermine their subsequent interest in those activities once the reward is removed. Lepper, Greene, and Nisbett demonstrated this in children in 1973; later meta-analyses confirmed the effect is real for specific reward types, though the strong version of the claim — that any reward harms any intrinsic motivation — is overstated.
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