Habitica

[Natevaelle]

Habitica is a free habit building and productivity app that treats your real life like a game. With in-game rewards and punishments to motivate you and a strong social network to inspire you, Habitica can help you achieve your goals to become healthy, hard-working, and happy.

 

Habitica was formerly called HabitRPG. You can access it via a browser by going to https://habitica.com/ or via the Habitica App that is available for both iOS and Android.

 

I love gaming. Nothing boosts my serotonin levels like gaming. For me, Habitica does a great job in motivating me to form habits and get things done. I have been using Habitica for almost two years. I started out playing on my own. Now, I have a party with seven other friends--a highschool friend, the highschool friend's brother, four former coworkers, and a former coworker's brother--and we do quests together. While other people create custom rewards (such as 15 gold for watching one episode of a television show), I aim to purchase all the possible in-game rewards, consisting of battle gears, costumes, pets, and other stuff. I enjoy dressing up my little avatar. I really have a fondness for pixel arts. It is no wonder then that I like Dragon Cave a lot too.

 

Do you use Habitica? What were your experiences while using Habitica?

Edited June 30, 2016 by Natevaelle

[TehUltimateMage]

I've used it, a couple years back. It's been pretty hit-and-miss with me, and I permanently checked my character into the inn and haven't touched it since the last year of my high school. Maybe it's because I didn't have other people doing it with me or because I'm bad at updating a tasklist.

 

I've always been bad at keeping track of tasks, but my current task-managing app is LifeRPG, which is similar to Habitica but without the flashy graphics. To be really honest, I keep going back to a nice, handwritten to do list.

 

 

[Shienvien]

Shouldn't this go under video games?

 

I generally do better with battling against my simple plaintext TODO-list; I think "gamefying" my life is more likely to be a hindrance, than a speedup.

 

I'm also wondering why the sample habits seems to count "chew gum" as being equally bad to smoking. One helps concentration and keeps your teeth healthy, the other causes lung cancer, headaches, and makes you smell like cigarettes.

[Natevaelle]

I've used it, a couple years back. It's been pretty hit-and-miss with me, and I permanently checked my character into the inn and haven't touched it since the last year of my high school. Maybe it's because I didn't have other people doing it with me or because I'm bad at updating a tasklist.

 

I've always been bad at keeping track of tasks, but my current task-managing app is LifeRPG, which is similar to Habitica but without the flashy graphics. To be really honest, I keep going back to a nice, handwritten to do list.

Random comment but my mentor advises to use a handwritten to-do list as well. However, it is the gaming feature in Habitica that really hits home with me. Some of my other friends aren't gamers but Habitica works for them because they are meticulous in keeping and updating their to-do lists. Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

Shouldn't this go under video games?

I thought about this. But to me, Habitica is more of a productivity app than a game. And I saw a topic or two on apps in General Discussions so I thought that it might fit here nicely.

 

I'm also wondering why the sample habits seems to count "chew gum" as being equally bad to smoking. One helps concentration and keeps your teeth healthy, the other causes lung cancer, headaches, and makes you smell like cigarettes. 

Some habits go one direction, like positive or negative only, while some habits go both directions. In the case of the example you stated, chewing gum is the positive side while smoking is the negative side. So when a person chews gum instead of smoking, they click the plus sign. Meanwhile, when a person smokes instead of chewing gum, they click the minus sign. I just had to clarify!