I Gamified My Life For A Week using Habitica

Summary

In this video, the creator shares their week-long experience with Habitica, an app that gamifies daily life to boost productivity. They discuss the app's interface, features like to-dos, dailies, and habits, and the potential for collaboration. Despite initial skepticism about gamification, they find it surprisingly engaging and discuss its impact on their daily workflow and motivation.

Takeaways

• 🎮 The user experimented with Habitica for a week to gamify and organize their daily life, sharing personal insights and workflow.
• 🖥️ The user appreciated the simple and intuitive user interface of Habitica, though they wished for a dedicated dark theme.
• 📝 Habitica's categorization of tasks into to-dos, dailies, and habits was beneficial, but the user was initially unsure about features like tags and rewards.
• 🎖️ Gamification was a main feature of Habitica, but the user was not initially captivated by it, though they hoped it would grow on them.
• 🐣 The user discovered an unintended exploit in the app that allowed for continuous egg collection, which could potentially lead to an infinite money glitch.
• 👫 The user formed a party with a friend, which added a social element and encouraged them to consider real-life rewards for their in-game gold.
• 📚 The user found the app's depth and complexity surprising, especially after reading the wiki pages, and learned about the importance of checklists and task management.
• 🏆 The user enjoyed setting up both good and bad habits and adjusting the difficulty levels to reflect the consequences of their actions.
• 💼 The user used Habitica as an all-in-one action list, integrating it with their weekly review in Obsidian and daily planning.
• 🏆 The gamification aspects of Habitica helped the user be more mindful of the impact of their actions and visualize their long-term growth.
• 🐰 The user participated in quests and battles within the app, finding the cooperative and long-term incentives to be motivating.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of the video?

The main purpose of the video is to showcase the presenter's one-week experience using Habitica, an app designed to gamify and organize daily life, and to share their personal thoughts, benefits, and workflow to help viewers determine if Habitica is suitable for them.

How does the presenter feel about the initial user interface of Habitica?

The presenter liked the simplicity and natural feel of the user interface when creating their account and using Habitica for the first time, but wished for a more dedicated dark theme.

What are the main features of Habitica that the presenter enjoys?

The presenter enjoys the sections for to-dos, dailies, and habits, as well as the potential for collaboration with friends in Habitica.

How does the presenter feel about the gamification aspect of Habitica?

Initially, the presenter was not very entranced by the gamification aspect of Habitica, but it grew on them throughout the week, adding a new incentive for completing tasks.

What strategy does the presenter use to manage their tasks in Habitica?

The presenter uses dailies to ensure they spend enough time on certain goals and categories throughout the day, and they set up tasks based on their weekly review in Obsidian.

What issue did the presenter find with Habitica's task management system?

The presenter found an exploit where they could continually get eggs by toggling a task repeatedly, which could potentially lead to an infinite money glitch.

How does the presenter use the rewards system in Habitica?

The presenter is considering what kind of real-life rewards they could purchase with their gold in Habitica, but they want to avoid rewards that would let them avoid certain tasks or be monetary-based.

What is the presenter's experience with the guild feature in Habitica?

The presenter joined some guilds but found them not very useful, as they only consist of a chat board with limited message display and a sidebar description, and they prefer browsing Reddit.

How does the presenter incorporate Habitica into their daily workflow?

The presenter uses Habitica as an all-in-one action list, starting with a weekly review in Obsidian, converting goals into actionable steps, and using dailies and to-dos to create a daily plan.

What are some potential improvements the presenter would like to see in Habitica?

The presenter would like to see more developed guild features, more rewards from bosses, and the ability to add custom lists based on tags or other criteria.

How does the presenter feel about their overall experience with Habitica after one week?

The presenter found the experience rewarding and felt that Habitica made their day seamless and productive, even though they initially did not expect much from the app.

Outlines

00:00

🎮 Introducing Habitica: A Week of Gamified Productivity

The speaker introduces Habitica, a gamification app designed to organize daily life and tasks. They share their initial experience, highlighting the app's simple and intuitive user interface, despite lacking a dedicated dark theme. The speaker appreciates the app's categorization of tasks into to-dos, dailies, and habits, and the potential for collaboration with friends. They also express initial skepticism towards the gamification aspect but remain open to its potential impact. The speaker sets up tasks based on their weekly review, incorporating study, fitness, JavaScript, videography, and learning through reading or Skillshare. They also discuss the app's features like tags, rewards, and the possibility of exploiting the system for extra rewards.

05:01

📚 Deep Dive into Habitica's Features and Mechanics

The speaker delves deeper into Habitica's mechanics, discussing the nuances of to-dos, dailies, and habits. They learn that to-dos don't penalize if completed on time and that dailies can earn more rewards as a streak develops. The speaker also explores the rewards system, balancing in-game and real-life rewards, and sets up rewards for leisure activities. They mention the beginner challenge for additional coins and the customization of pets using potions. The speaker further discusses the in-game stats and classes, aiming for a mage class for more XP, drops, and gold. They also touch on the guild system, finding it lacking in depth compared to their expectations, and express a desire for more developed features in the app.

10:06

🔄 Integrating Habitica into Daily Workflow and Reflections

The speaker reflects on their week-long experience with Habitica, integrating it into their daily workflow. They describe how they use Habitica as an all-in-one action list, starting with their weekly review in Obsidian and translating goals into Habitica tasks. They discuss the process of creating daily plans from dailies and filling extra time with to-dos. The speaker also mentions the gamification aspects that help them stay mindful of their actions and the impact on their life. They express a desire for more developed guild features and more rewards from bosses. The speaker concludes by sharing their appreciation for the app's mix of functionality and gamification, which has made their day-to-day tasks more seamless and productive.

Keywords

💡Habitica

Habitica is a productivity app that gamifies daily tasks and habits. It helps users organize and manage their daily activities by turning them into game-like challenges. In the video, the user discusses their experience with Habitica, highlighting how it helps them balance projects and study time during a busy period.

💡Gamification

Gamification refers to the use of game design elements in non-game contexts to engage users and motivate them to achieve their goals. In the video, the user explores how Habitica's gamification elements, such as rewards and challenges, influence their daily productivity and task completion.

💡UI (User Interface)

The user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between users and a digital device occur. In the script, the user appreciates Habitica's simple and natural UI, which makes the app easy to use and navigate, although they express a desire for a dedicated dark theme.

💡To-dos

To-dos are tasks or activities that need to be completed. In the video, the user uses Habitica's to-do feature to keep track of small tasks they need to accomplish throughout the day, helping them stay organized and focused.

💡Dailies

Dailies in Habitica refer to daily tasks that the user must complete. The user in the video uses dailies to ensure they spend enough time on certain goals and categories, such as studying for finals, staying fit, and learning new skills.

💡Habits

Habits in the context of Habitica are recurring behaviors that the user wants to either build or break. The user discusses setting up habits to track productive use of break time and to avoid negative behaviors like touching their face.

💡Rewards

Rewards in Habitica are in-game incentives that users earn for completing tasks. The user contemplates what real-life rewards they could purchase with their in-game gold, aiming to avoid using rewards as a means to avoid tasks or as a monetary incentive.

💡Quests

Quests in Habitica are challenges or missions that users undertake, often involving completing a series of tasks. The user forms a party with a friend to embark on a quest to fight 'feral dust bunnies,' illustrating the cooperative and engaging aspect of the app.

💡Tags

Tags in Habitica are labels that users can assign to tasks to categorize them. The user considers using tags to differentiate between tasks they can do during break periods and those for work periods, enhancing task organization and visibility.

💡Workflow

Workflow refers to the sequence of tasks or processes involved in completing a job or project. The user describes their workflow with Habitica, integrating it with their weekly review in Obsidian and daily planning, emphasizing how it helps them stay on track and productive.

💡Gamification Aspect

The gamification aspect of Habitica involves turning daily tasks into game-like challenges with rewards and penalties. Initially, the user was skeptical about this feature, but they found themselves enjoying the added incentive and engagement it provided, making their daily tasks more enjoyable.

Highlights

Showcasing one week experience of using Habitica to gamify and organize daily life.

Personal thoughts, benefits, and workflow shared to help determine if Habitica is suitable.

Initial disorganization and need for balance during a busy time.

Simple and natural user interface appreciated.

Desire for a dedicated dark theme for better aesthetics.

Potential of Habitica recognized beyond initial expectations.

Enjoyment of task categorization into to-dos, dailies, and habits.

Challenge in utilizing features like tags and rewards.

Gamification as a main selling point but with mixed personal appeal.

Tailoring habits to personal break usage patterns.

Using dailies for time allocation on specific goals.

Inclusion of personal goals like studying, fitness, and learning in task setup.

Utilization of tags for task categorization during work and break periods.

Quick and simple task addition and completion process.

Discovery of an exploit in task toggling leading to potential infinite money glitch.

Formation of a party with a friend for collaborative task completion.

Consideration of real-life rewards and their impact on task avoidance.

Learning about the app's depth through wiki pages.

Engagement in a quest with friends and the enjoyment of gamification.

Adjustment of task difficulties based on personal priorities.

Use of Habitica as an all-in-one action list in daily workflow.

Integration of Habitica with other practices and applications.

Gamification elements enhancing mindfulness and real-life rewards.

Suggestions for improvements in features like guilds and boss rewards.

Final thoughts on the rewarding experience of using Habitica.

Transcripts

In this video, I'll be showcasing my one week experience of using Habitica

to gamify and organize my day to day life.

I'll share my personal thoughts, benefits, and workflow

to help you determine whether Habitica is for you.

If you're looking to level up in life,

oh my God I actually said that.

Be sure to watch until the very end.

Right now I'm feeling a bit disorganized

as I need to balance the current projects

I'm working on with some studying time during finals week.

Hopefully, Habitica can help me find balance and success

in a rather busy time of my life.

When creating my account and using it for the first time,

I liked how simple and natural the UI was.

I wish there was a more dedicated dark theme

seeing as my Google Chrome extension does not look too good.

I wasn't expecting much, but now I can see the potential of Habitica.

I really enjoy how there's a section for to-dos, dailies, and habits

as well as potential collaboration with friends.

However, I'll have to figure out what to do with features like tags and rewards.

Habitica's main selling point is the gamification,

but honestly I'm not really that entranced by it.

I'll see if it grows on me, though, throughout the week.

The touching face one is gonna kill me.

I don't really have any repetitive habits throughout the day,

so I decided to just tailor it to the ways I use my breaks.

I have a habit set up to keep track of

whether I use my breaks productively or if I procrastinate.

As of now, I plan on using dailies to make sure

I spend enough time on certain goals and categories throughout the day.

Copied from my weekly review in Obsidian,

I created a task for each daily time allocation I had.

This includes studying for my upcoming finals, staying fit, JavaScript,

videography, and learning things through reading or Skillshare.

At the moment, I don't have much to-dos,

but I plan on using this for keeping note of the small things

I need to do throughout the day.

Since I like to alternate between work and break sessions throughout the day,

I thought it would be handy to have tags for tasks

I can do during break and then tasks I can do during work periods.

After setting everything all up, it's time to finally use the app.

The incentive to carry out my tasks for the sake of this video

has helped me stay on track and complete all my dailies.

So far, I've had no issues with the user interface or workflow of the app.

Adding and completing tasks were quick and simple.

Interesting enough, I found an exploit

where you can continually get eggs if you spam toggle a task.

I wasn't actively trying to cheat the system and find bugs,

but I just happened to notice it

when I reset my tasks to record me completing them.

This could lead to an infinite money glitch,

so hopefully I have the self-discipline to not abuse it.

To spice things up, I formed a party with my friend

who introduced me to Habitica in the first place.

After seeing his rather reasonable rewards,

I began thinking about what kind of real-life rewards

I could purchase with my own gold.

The only problem is, I don't want them to let me avoid certain tasks

since that would go against my reason for using the app.

I also don't want them to be monetary-based

since I would drain my wallet way too fast.

I'll get back to it some other time.

I thought the application was rather simple

until I read one of the wiki pages and realized how much there is to learn.

For example, although checklists may not give any rewards upon completion,

they mitigate the damage of an unfinished daily.

After a rather productive day with virtually all dailies done

and some habits included, I managed to get a whopping 16.31 coin.

Wanting some more loot, my friend and I embarked on a quest

to fight the feral dust bunnies.

I have no idea how this will work,

but I guess we'll have to learn as we go.

I know I said I wouldn't enjoy the gamification aspect,

but I kind of like it now.

It's wholesome, it adds a new incentive for doing things,

and I like being able to talk to my friends about the different features and items.

Unfortunately, it's like 30 minutes until my bedtime

and I haven't done my daily Skillshare learning,

so I'm interested in seeing what kind of punishment I'll get for it.

Tomorrow, I'll spend some time learning about some potential features

that could improve my workflow and enjoyment using the app.

It's near the end of the day, and so far the boss has a hefty amount of HP left on it.

The rewards don't seem too appealing,

but I guess it acts as a cooperative and long-term incentive to stay consistent.

Today, I spent some time refining my habits and added some new ones.

I really enjoy how you can set up both good and bad habits

and how you can see your progress throughout the day or week.

Additionally, I also spent some time readjusting levels of difficulty.

Although meant for declaring the difficulty of the task,

you can also base it on the desired weight of the consequence

when missing or achieving it.

In my case, I set something as simple as not touching my face to hard

so I can really prioritize not doing it.

I've been struggling to come up with tasks to incorporate into the app,

but thankfully Habitica has a bunch of sample ones on their wiki.

If you're a nerd like me and want to learn all the specific uses

and explore the reinforcement mechanisms the game provides,

I left a link to it in the description of the video for further reading.

While we're at it, might as well mention some more neat things I learned.

To-do's don't actually hurt you

if you complete them in time,

and the older a to-do is, the more rewards it will give you if you complete it.

I was worried about not being able to finish all my to-dos this week,

but it's nice to see that I won't instantly die the day they're all due.

For dailies, you earn more rewards as a streak develops,

but at the same time, you also lose rewards

since you're becoming used to the activity.

If something is done later in the night,

you have a chance to check off dailies the day after.

Now that I think about it,

I'm surprised at how intricate and distinct the three task lists are.

Likewise, there's also some depth in the rewards section

since you have to consider things like the amount of coins you get in a day,

and how you're going to balance

spending coins on real-life rewards versus in-game rewards.

Personally, I was finally able to set up some rewards for some leisure activities

I can do during my break time.

I currently get around 16 coins a day,

so claiming an anime break period would cost me a quarter of a day's productivity.

The wiki also has some more questions to help you set up your rewards workflow,

so I'll put them on the screen right now.

That wraps it up for day 2, onto day 3.

There's a beginner challenge where if you do these 5 things, you can get 100 coins.

It's been there since the beginning,

so I decided to finally do it.

My current pet looks a bit creepy,

so I decided to create some more.

Apparently, the potions that you give the pet affect the color of the pet.

I settled for a cotton candy blue dragon,

which I think looks kinda cute.

Anyways, to make use of my coins,

I decided to look at the in-game items I could buy,

as I didn't think I was deserving of converting it into real-life reward.

I learned that different equipment provide different statuses.

Here's a chart showcasing some of the specifics.

The 4 stats in-game are Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, and Perception.

Each one has a primary class and secondary class

that it's attributed to, and leveling up these stats provide in-game benefits.

For example, you could level up your Constitution to reduce the damage you take

when missing dailies or indulging in bad habits.

Although it does make your character more connected to your personal life,

I don't want to use this stat as encouragement to be more lazy with my tasks.

Additionally, classes that specialize in a certain skill

gain extra status points from equipment.

Seeing that I want a heavier focus on in-game benefits rather than personal ones,

I'm leaning a bit towards a mage for more XP, drops, and gold.

Unfortunately, classes unlock at level 10,

so I don't even know if I'll be able to hit that by the end of this week.

I haven't been able to put much effort into clearing my to-dos,

and right now I'm sitting at a mountain of tasks.

I would prefer if you were to be punished for

completing a to-do on the set deadline,

since right now the dates are only acting as a decoration.

Thus, I decided to create a daily to ensure

that I made some progress on my to-do list throughout the day.

I already have the habit,

but I think this will provide some more urgency.

I didn't think I'd actually use these for a while,

but I ended up playing a round of Gunfire Reborn with a friend,

so I paid the price of 4 coins.

The bunnies have a sliver of health left.

If I complete a few more tasks,

I'll finally wake up to some sweet rewards.

I don't really know what else to include in this day,

so I decided to explore the guild section of the website.

There are various guilds you can choose from,

with some even having over 30,000 members.

However, as soon as I entered, I realized it wasn't for me.

Although it could definitely help you meet new Habitica users with similar interests,

guilds only consist of a chat board

that only displays 200 messages and a sidebar description.

Nonetheless, I still joined some just to see if they would be of any use.

I'd much rather prefer sticking to browsing Reddit though.

I'm gonna be straight up,

there's just not that much new things for me to talk about or explore.

Before I go over these last 3 days,

feel free to skip to the workflow part of the video.

I had school and a bunch of events I had to go to,

so I couldn't do much Habitica deep diving.

For today's progress though, I hit level 7, beat the bunnies,

and started a new quest.

Instead of fighting a boss, we just have to find things by doing tasks,

which I think is a nice little twist.

By the end of the day, I managed to overpass my friend in level and XP.

By putting the to-do daily in the front,

I'm more conscious of finding time in my day to work on them.

I've been accumulating a lot of coins,

so I decided to risk it and bought the 100 coin mystery chest.

This was actually a pretty lucky pull

considering that I want to be a mage.

Maybe hitting level 10 on the last day will be possible with these new stab buffs.

To further punish myself for not sticking to my to-dos,

I created a bad habit I would take off if I were to miss a to-do or sloppily do it.

Tomorrow, I'll refine my workflow

and go through how Habitica fits into my daily life.

Unfortunately, as of writing this, it's the end of the day

and I wasn't able to hit level 10.

If you're interested in using Habitica,

I guess that's just one thing you'll have to learn on your own.

Now that the 7 days are over,

I think it's time to go over my workflow and use for the app.

To truly show you how I incorporate Habitica into my workflow,

you'll have to understand the other practices and applications

I have to use, so please bear with me.

Habitica acts as an all-in-one action list

that helps me remind and organize my day.

The entire process begins at Sunday,

when I fill out my weekly review in Obsidian.

If you're looking for a new note-taking app,

I would recommend checking out my video on it.

After setting some goals for the week,

I converted my various goals into actionable

steps categorized by Habitica's habits, dailies, and to-dos.

Every morning, I use the dailies

I set up in Habitica to create my daily plan

and use the to-dos to fill up any extra break or work periods.

If I have some extra time after finishing a task early,

I have the tag during spare to see

what tasks can be gradually completed throughout those small work periods.

When switching between work and break sessions,

I'll update Habitica, tracking my habits and checking off any to-dos or dailies.

At the end of the week, I'll re-evaluate my task difficulties,

clean up any dusty tasks, and prepare for my next weekly review.

Aside from the in-game benefits,

Habitica's aspects of gamification help me be more mindful

of the impact my actions have on improving my life.

For example, whenever I receive my gold and experience rewards,

I'm prompted to also think about the real-life rewards

that accompany completing a task,

which helps me find solace amidst the daily grind.

Furthermore, as my character levels up,

I can't help but visualize my own long-term growth

achieved from actually getting things done.

I didn't go too much into it,

but if you're creative enough,

I would consider creating a story for your character

to make the process more immersive.

One implementation that caught my eye was

how this Reddit user sets creative names and features for their habits.

I'll leave a link to the Reddit post in the description.

Different measurements like your loss in HP

and the tallies on habits provide some insight

on what went wrong throughout a day or week.

It might not be too detailed,

but it gives a rough idea on some possible areas of focus or improvements.

I don't have any major complaints with Habitica,

but there's some features that I wouldn't mind having.

I get there's other applications

that can easily fill this purpose,

but I wish the guilds were further developed with features

like different text channels and permanent messages.

It would also be cool if the bosses gave more rewards,

as I can earn this amount of gold and experience from completing 5 tasks.

I wish there was an option to add custom lists based off tags or other criteria.

Searching through tags is sufficient enough,

but with the absolute length of my lists,

I wouldn't mind having a few more.

As of now, Habitica's mix of simple functionality and gamification elements

make the program stand out from its competitors.

As long as I continually find ways to keep myself engaged,

I'm sure it'll continue to be a staple in my daily workflow.

Organizing my tasks into Habitica's classifications of to-dos, dailies,

and habits has turned out to be an effective antidote for the lack of clarity

I experience throughout the day as it helps remind me of

what I should or could be doing.

I used to use Todoist, but slowly stopped using it

as I began using Obsidian to schedule my day and keep track of my to-dos.

I'm not sure if it's the gamification or the honeymoon phase,

but using Habitica just makes my day seamless and productive.

Anyways, that's all I have to share from my one week Habitica experience.

Thanks for watching until the very end.

I initially did not expect much

when trying Habitica out,

but spending a week to try it out

and actually incorporate it in my life has been quite rewarding.

Now, it's your turn to gamify and level up your own life.

If you found my advice to be helpful,

be sure to like and share this video

and subscribe for more content like this.

Stay mindful.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, my friend wanted me to include a clip

of his cat using Habitica, so here it is.

If a cat can use it, what's stopping you?