Alongside the share price, the medals in Athenify represent another powerful motivational tool that keeps you engaged throughout the semester.
What Are Medals in Athenify?
Medals are awards for particularly productive study days. In Athenify, there are three medals: Gold, Silver, and Bronze. By default, you receive medals for the following study times:
- More than 5 hours (300 minutes): Gold Medal 🥇
- More than 4 hours (240 minutes): Silver Medal 🥈
- More than 3 hours (180 minutes): Bronze Medal 🥉
Think of it like the Olympics—except you're competing against yourself, and every medal is a victory.
Why Medals Work for Motivation
Every medal is immediate recognition of your effort—you don't have to wait until the end of the semester to celebrate your wins.
The medal system taps into fundamental principles of gamification in education. Here's why it's so effective:
Visual Progress
Medals provide an immediate, visual reward for your efforts. Unlike abstract numbers, a gold medal feels like a tangible achievement.
Daily Targets
Having a clear threshold to aim for (e.g., 5 hours for gold) gives your study session a concrete goal. This eliminates the "how much is enough?" uncertainty.
Cumulative Satisfaction
Over time, your medal collection grows. Looking back at a semester full of gold medals creates a powerful sense of accomplishment.
Customize Your Medal Thresholds
In Athenify, you can freely decide the amount of study time required to earn medals. In the settings, you can change the values for all three medals at any time.
When you receive which medal (or want to receive) depends on various factors. Here's how to find your sweet spot:
Don't Set Goals Too Low
Medals should only be earned when you can truly be satisfied with the study time. If you're getting gold medals too easily, they lose their meaning.
The goal is to feel genuine pride when you earn that gold. If it happens every day without effort, consider raising your threshold.
Don't Set Goals Too High
On the other hand, the values for medals should not be set too high. Otherwise, the medals might be demotivating—you'll feel like gold is impossible to achieve.
If you're consistently missing medals despite working hard, lower your thresholds. The system should encourage, not discourage.
Finding Your Goldilocks Zone
The art lies in setting the values to a Goldilocks level—not too easy, not too hard, but just right.
You'll need to experiment a bit, and that's completely fine! Eventually, you'll find the right medal values for you.
How to Calibrate
- Start with the defaults (3h Bronze, 4h Silver, 5h Gold)
- Track for one week and see how many medals you earn
- Adjust based on results:
- Earning too many? Raise thresholds by 30 minutes
- Earning too few? Lower thresholds by 30 minutes
- Repeat until medals feel meaningful but achievable
Medals Unleash Their Full Power
Once calibrated, medals become incredibly motivating. Like an Olympian, you'll find yourself collecting medals throughout the semester. Everywhere in Athenify, you'll see on which days you earned medals.
The Psychology Behind It
The medal system leverages several psychological principles:
- Variable reward: Some days you'll get bronze, some days gold—this variability keeps things interesting
- Loss aversion: You won't want to end a day without at least a bronze medal
- Streak building: Combine medals with streaks for even more motivation
Combining Medals with Other Features
Medals work best when combined with Athenify's other motivation features:
- Streaks: Build consecutive days of earning medals
- Share Price: Watch your share price rise on gold medal days
- Analytics: Track which subjects earn you the most medals
Together, these features create a comprehensive motivation system that keeps you engaged throughout the semester.
Start Earning Your Medals
Ready to gamify your studying? Try Athenify and start earning your first medals today.
Discover all Athenify features and see why students love it.
