I Built a Bot That Sends Me Daily “Side Quests” via our Company Messeging Tool (And Why You Should Try It Too)

Life feels like an NPC routine sometimes. Here’s how I gamified my existence using personality data, location, and a simple chatbot.

We live in an age of infinite scroll and zero presence. We know what we should do — read more, walk outside, disconnect from screens, reconnect with friends but we rarely do it. Why? Because decision fatigue is real, and inertia is heavy.

Life can feel like a repetitive loop: Wake up, work, sleep, repeat. I wanted to break that cycle, so I built “SideQuest.” We often wait for big moments to feel alive: a promotion, a vacation, or a weekend trip. But what if we could find adventure in the small, daily moments?

I recently built a web app called SideQuest. The idea is simple: it gives you one small, manageable mission every day to help you explore your city, learn something new, or just slow down.

Here is a quick walkthrough of how I built it and how it works.

Step 1: Telling the App Who You Are

The first thing the app needs to know is who it is talking to. A quest for a loud extrovert might be terrifying for a quiet introvert, and vice versa.

In the My Profile section, I set up a simple form to capture the basics:

• Name & Age: To keep things personal.
• Location: So the app knows where you are (e.g., BGC, Makati, Manila).
• Personality Type: I added three options: Introvert, Ambivert, and Extrovert. This helps the app decide if it should send you to a crowded market or a quiet library.
• Activity Preferences: This is the fun part. You can tag what you’re in the mood for: Outdoor, Indoor, Social, Physical, Creative, Mindful, Food, Learning, Finance, Digital Detox, or Productivity.

By filling this out, the app doesn’t just give you a random task; it gives you a task that actually fits your vibe.

Step 2: The Quest Library

You can’t have a game without content. I spent time curating a massive list of 570 side quests.

In the Quest Library, you can browse everything. I organized them with tags so they are easy to find.

• Want something easy? Filter by “Easy.”
• Want to get healthy? Filter by “Physical” or “Food.”
• Want to clear your head? Filter by “Mindful” or “Digital Detox.”

Some examples from the library include:

• “Go outside with a book and read in public — no headphones, no phone.”
• “Send a postcard to someone you love. Don’t tell them it’s coming.”
• “Do a ‘life audit’: Write what is working and what isn’t.”

The goal here was to make sure there was never a boring option. Every quest has a difficulty level (Easy, Medium, Hard) so you know what you’re getting into.

Step 3: Getting Your Daily Mission

This is the core of the app. Every morning, when you open Today’s Quest, the app looks at your profile and picks one perfect mission for you.

For example, on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, the app told me:

“Explore a fresh market or bazaar without any shopping list.”

It tagged it as Easy, Outdoor, Food, and Mindful.

The interface is clean and focused. You see the quest, you see the tags, and you have two main buttons:

1. Quest Done! To mark it as complete.
2. Send to group. Since we use an internal for work, I added a button to push the quest directly to my chat. This way, even if I’m busy working, the reminder is right there in my message feed.

There’s also a “Try Another” button if the quest doesn’t fit your schedule for the day, and a star rating system to give feedback on whether the quest was good or bad.

Step 4: Tracking Progress

Finally, I added a Leaderboard.

Gamification works because we like seeing progress. The leaderboard shows who has completed their quests today, this week, or all-time.

Right now, it might say “No completions yet,” but the goal is to create a community of people who are actively choosing to do something different every day. It includes a quote at the bottom to keep you inspired:

“Adventure is not outside. It is within.” — George Eliot

Why I Built This

I didn’t build SideQuest to be another productivity tool. I didn’t want to optimize my work. I wanted to optimize my life.

By turning daily activities into “quests,” it takes the pressure off. You aren’t “forcing yourself to go for a walk”; you are “completing an Outdoor Quest.” It sounds silly, but that small shift in language makes a huge difference.

If you’re feeling stuck in a routine, try adding a side quest to your day. Go to a new café. Call an old friend. Read a chapter of a book. Life is the main quest. But the side quests are where the fun happens.