Systems and methods for applying game mechanics to the completion of tasks by users

An apparatus for managing e-mail messages across a network, the apparatus comprising:

• at least one processor at a server, the at least one processor:
• sending, to a local machine, an e-mail message from an e-mail inbox associated with a user which is stored on the server that is in communication with the local machine via a network;
• provides, via a user interface on a display device associated with the local machine, the e-mail message to the user;
• provides, via the user interface on the display device associated with the local machine, the user with a plurality of actions which may be applied to the e-mail message;
• determines an amount of time associated with each of said plurality of actions;
• determines that a user has selected one of said actions from the user interface;
• determines a score of performance for the user based, at least in part, on an amount of time elapsed between displaying the contents of the e-mail message and a point in time after selection of the action relative to said amount of time associated with the selected action;
• adds the determined score of performance for the user to a total score of performance for the user;
• and
• provides, via the user interface on the display device associated with the local machine, positive feedback to the user at a time after the selection of an action wherein said positive feedback comprises at least one of:
• a statement, an image, a series of images, a video, an animation, the determined score of performance for the user, the total score of performance for the user, and audio.

A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium encoded with computer-readable instructions that, as a result of being executed by a computing device, control the computing device to perform a method for managing e-mail messages, the method comprising:

• retrieving, at a local machine, an e-mail message from an e-mail inbox associated with a user which is stored on a server that is in communication with the local machine via a network;
• providing, via a user interface on a display device associated with the local machine, the e-mail message to the user;
• providing, via the user interface on the display device associate with the local machine, the user with a plurality of actions which may be applied to the e-mail message;
• determining, via at least one processor at the server, an amount of time associated with each of said plurality of actions;
• determining, via the at least one processor at a server, that a user has selected one of said actions from the user interface;
• determining, via the at least one processor at a server, a score of performance for the user based, at least in part, on an amount of time elapsed between displaying the contents of the e-mail message and a time after selection of the action relative to said amount of time associated with the selected action;
• adding, via the-at least one processor at a server, the determined score of performance for the user to a total score of performance for the user;
• and
• providing, via the user interface on the display device associated with the local machine, positive feedback to the user at a time after the selection of an action wherein said positive feedback comprises at least one of:
• a statement, an image, a series of images, a video, an animation, the determined score of performance for the user, the total score of performance for the user, and audio.