Contingencies of Reinforcement.
I have just started using LifeBalance and I love it. I have read the Help material about planning for rewards, but I think there is fundamental improvement needed, based on basic behavioral theory. The idea is to tie the completion of particular tasks to rewards as a contingency of reinforcement. For example, if I list "Finish Report" as a task linked to the reward of "Take Bubble Bath" then the latter appears as the first item on my To Do List, but only after I have completed the task. Of course, the user could "cheat" and take the bubble bath anyway, but most people would be able to use this along with minimal self-control as an effective means of behavioral reinforcement anyway. Maybe LifeBalance already has the capability to link items in this way but I don't know it, as I am a newbie. If it can be done, I would like to be shown how. If it can not be done, I would like to make this suggestion to the developers. I think it would transform LifeBalance into an even better self-management application.
Comments
Setting Up Rewards
Sounds like two interconnected issues here.
First, to make sure the reward doesn't show up until the task is completed, you would need to choose "Complete subtasks in order" in the Time panel of the parent task. Then, as long as the reward is the last item in the project, it won't be seen until all the other steps are completed.
The second issue, having the reward appear at the top of the To Do List when it does become available, is more of a head-scratcher. The first thing to try would be raising the Importance of the reward in the General pane and/or lowering the Importance of other tasks, since Importance is, well, an important factor in which tasks get listed on top. Unfortunately, the importance of other tasks, their parent projects, the number of tasks listed on the To Do List and the balance between TLI muddies the water quite a bit, so this might not bump rewards all the way to the top. Another possibility would be to create a "Rewards" place that is then contained in other places such as "Home". Then you could periodically filter your To Do List to show what rewards you've earned. Not as automated as having them appear on top of the standard list, but does make them more visible.
Hopefully these will work for you, or at least stir up some new ideas!