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Habitica – A gamified habit-building and productivity app
- miki123211 6y agoThere's also the nuclear option, AKA beeminder.com. You set your goals, choose a financial punishment, and you get charged on failing. Works pretty great.
- mjangle1985 6y agoWhy not just use a rubber band on your wrist and a sting each time? It provides the same conditioned response to not doing your work but you don't have to pay for it.
- miki123211 6y agoTwo reasons 1. Beeminder can, if you want it to do so, increase punishments up to an arbitrary amount. There are situations where you want your punishment to be extremely high, so that you know losing is not an option. 2. Some people have a problem with entering the right amounts of data, or even tracking all their stuff. Beeminder is automated. Do whatever works, though. The rubber band approach isn't bad. Some people might prefer automated scripts that send out compromising photos or destroy data if certain conditions are met. There are a lot of approaches.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- strombofulous 6y agoI don't like how hard they try to hide the fact that you can purchase "gems", even the FAQ page doesn't discuss what you actually need them for. Does anyone who has used this before know if they start getting in the way or becoming more important than actually completing tasks?
- rarec 6y agoThey're only useful for cosmetic and extra quests and the like. You can just straight up ignore them and not lose out on anything.
- strombofulous 6y agoAwesome that is exactly what I wanted to hear, thanks
- akhiluk 6y agoYou are right. I'd bought some gems with my Google Opinion Rewards money, and the only use someone has for gems is for costumes and backgrounds - all cosmetic changes, nothing that affects the gameplay. IIRC you can use gems to change your class if you wish, but you get an Orb of Regeneration at Level 100, so you can change your class for free at that point.
- arkad 6y agoThere's also self hosted version on github: https://github.com/headcounter/shabitica https://github.com/headcounter/shabitica Disclaimer: I'm not a contributor and have never installed it. Edit: broken link
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- mvind 6y agoIt is weird how we have normalized the fact we need an app to remind us to drink water, or work for one hour. I don't see how this can help one make substantial and long changes to one's life and habits.
- zhdc1 6y agoHow is this any different from written daily routines, to do lists, and journals, all of which have been around for centuries/millennia?
- ycombinete 6y agoI agree, I think your parent is confusing symptoms for causes.
- xmprt 6y agoI'm still not sure if it's a bad thing but it's definitely different. When I use a journal/list/daily routine, I feel like I'm in control but when I use an app I feel like I'm giving that up to someone/something else. When I miss a goal that I wrote in a journal then I'm only letting myself down but when I'm using an app I feel worse about messing up. I don't know how justified those feelings are but at a certain point I think it's worth sitting down and asking whether the app makes you feel worse about the mistakes than the mistakes themselves.
- pbhjpbhj 6y agoDoes that make the app better or worse, extrinsic motivation seems better. That's one reason to use an app, I thought; some pseudo-accountability.
- jraby3 6y agoWell those specific habits probably won’t. But you can choose better habits, like thanking someone, a reminder to call your parents, meditating, etc. For me the app is generally used as a reminder but there are times at night I don’t want to break my streak so will force myself to meditate or call my mother. Always happy that I did, so it’s well worth the few seconds a day to use it. Btw I use Way of Life. Not sure about the one mentioned in this article, it may take longer.
- avree 6y agoHow come HabitRPG gets posted to HN every month? (Albeit under a new name for the past few years?)
- cardenasrjl 6y agoI've tried many apps to track my actions and in long term it doesn't work.
- quenix 6y agoDitto. This stuff seems good and is somewhat motivating at first. But it never works out in the long term.
- Trasmatta 6y agoFor me, I think it's that tracking all the stuff in the app ends up being a bit of a chore. So my mind associates the habit I'm trying to build with that slightly negative feeling. I think it also mixes up intrinsic vs extrinsic rewards. It's less about building satisfaction or enjoyment out of the actual habit (intrinsic) and more about the tracking of that habit (extrinsic). So then the habit just remains a chore. That's my experience at least, I realize it's different for a lot of people.
- ycombinete 6y agoYes, I wouldn't use this for anything other than having a bit of fun.
- jraby3 6y agoI find that eventually it turns into a reminder app which is helpful anyway, as I have about a dozen regular habits I try to keep. I use Way of Life and it’s been helpful without being a pain.
- danielheath 6y agoI have had much more success printing out spreadsheets (day along the long axis, habits across the short) and using a pen. The interface to generate graphs sucks, but otherwise it’s fantastic.
- esperent 6y agoExactly. I've tried many of these apps, and many fancy tracking solutions. But now, all I use is a spreadsheet and folder of markdown notes. My conclusion, after a good year of testing these apps, is that they don't help me build habits. Only I can do that. If anything, they distract me.
- LrQSs8Dq 6y agoWhy does this need to be an online app? Why do I need to run my own instance if I want control over my data? An offline app would work just fine, no? After all this is nothing more than a glorified todo list.
- clubdorothe 6y agoIs anyone had success keeping habits with this app? What alternatives do you recommend?
- dewlinedew2 6y agoIf you have so many goals that you need software to track them, I'd be worried that you're spreading yourself too thin...
- danielheath 6y agoHome maintenance alone is complex enough to require an exobrain; might as well be a software one. Same goes for keeping more than a handful of healthy, positive friendships.
- wodenokoto 6y agoI quit reddit using this app. I was quite addicted and would constantly and unconsciously open reddit, and even though I was only participating in smaller, innocently looking subs, they were actually quite toxic. R/learnJapanese was fx full of people who wanted to learn Japanese and wanted everybody else to stop so they could have it for themselves. I added it as a negative task and that made me conscientious about my visits and made me quit. It also got me started flossing. Weekly tasks that did not have a specific day, I failed at, but I think it was the open nature of when they had to be done and not the games fault. But just those two habits was a big win.
- shdc 6y agoYou can try getting an actual life. I'm not being sardonic. These apps are usually a sign you're addicted to your devices, or the internet.
- sildur 6y agoI agree with your last sentence, but a lot of people already have a life and they’re still addicted. The life, of course, is affected. But the addiction is strong.
- cbanek 6y agoI used to use habitica and it was pretty fun, and it helped me organize a lot of my repeated but non-daily tasks, like remembering when to put the garbage out, going to the gym, etc. For me, the biggest problem of habits and routines I think is actually remembering them and a notification to do them at a time, because I easily lose track of time. Now I use todoist, and while it's not the same, I like todoist, and am enjoying it more. The browser extensions are nice. It has karma and tracks things, although doesn't have the idea that you should have completed things, which can make things a bit tricky, but overall it's really helped me get things out of my mind and into lists.
- diimdeep 6y agoI would use something that looks like an actual habit tracker [1] but with elements of gamification, than a game with elements of tracker, which seems to care more about being fancy pixel art, than a tool to help people track habits. [1] https://loophabits.org https://loophabits.org
- mmanfrin 6y ago> which clearly cares more about being fancy pixel art than a tool to help people track habits Why do you say it 'clearly cares more' about art than its purpose?
- dddw 6y agoArt doesn't want a purpose
- gala8y 6y agoI have been a long time user of Loop Habit Tracker - with its sleek charts, streaks and frequency tables, it gamifies habits for me just fine & enough.
- optimalsolver 6y agoAn alternate take on gamified productivity: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KwdcMts8P8hacqwrX/noticing-the-taste-of-lotus https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KwdcMts8P8hacqwrX/noticing-t...
- kqr 6y agoYeah, this is my experience with duolingo too. I know in my head that all that extrinsic motivation only limits my intrinsic motivation, where the latter is what'll actually get me to learn something. Despite that, it's hard not to do easy exercises just to end up on the leaderboard.
- kubanczyk 6y agoI use uBlock/adBlock, so right click on the Leaderboard, create a custom filter and that's it, bye. Other features of Duolingo (the streak, the daily goal, etc.) play really well with my own intrinsic motivation, FWIW.
- fsiefken 6y agoFor those using taskwarrior, there is karmawarrior for lightweight gamification https://gitlab.com/BlackEdder/karmawarrior https://gitlab.com/BlackEdder/karmawarrior
- bschne 6y agoSee also Ben Kuhn's "Make your habits zero-effort" - https://www.benkuhn.net/zero/ https://www.benkuhn.net/zero/ "Life hacks abound: Tell your friends about your plan so you’ll be embarrassed if you fail! Make sure you keep an unbroken streak! Charge yourself money if you don’t stick to it! Donate the money to your least favorite charity! Forget donations, how about electric shocks? The escalating absurdity should tell you that this problem is unsolved. But in my opinion, that’s because everyone tries to do it wrong. Personally, I’ve found my productivity habits to be extremely long-lived when I make sure they’re literally zero maintenance."
- esperent 6y agoThat's cool, I haven't seen this idea summed up so well. Do you have any examples of this? One thing I do is put sites I want to spend less time on into my hosts file. That way I have to edit a file, which means leaving the context of my web browser, before I can access the site. Another habit I want to build is quick journaling first thing in the morning, so I made my browser start page a Google docs, and I automatically open the browser on start. So when I turn on my laptop, the first thing I'm presented with is a blank sheet. I can then copy whatever I write into my notes folder. Tracking time with an app sounds interesting. I checked the Rescue Time app, but the pricing information is really well hidden on their website. I had to Google it. Sure enough, it's $9 a month - that's $108 a year!! For a time tracking app! I really dislike this trend of small apps switching to a subscription model, and I will not support it. Does anyone know a similar app that is more reasonably priced?
- bschne 6y ago> Do you have any examples of this? Personally I've been surprised how well setting up contexts for intended outcomes ahead of time works - e.g. if I want to study X, I close everything else on my computer the night before and only open the textbook and my reading notes; If I want to get up on time and go for a run I put my running gear in one place all ready to put on, etc. More generally I try to prepare a daily note on my computer the night before with the most important few things I'd like to focus on. But what works and doesn't it's highly personal, e.g. the hosts file thing has never lasted more than a day or two for me :)
- scns 6y agoI use loop habit tracker for this. You can set recurring reminders and mark tasks done. It has an overview screen that shows your progress. Has a Dark Mode (Big plus on OLED).
- jbjbjbjb 6y agoHabit trackers are great when you pair them with a smart watch and automations. I use an app called Streaks, Apple Watch and Shortcuts. Streaks can pick up health data and in Shortcuts I’ve set it up so it increments a counter in Streaks to keep track of when I open Instagram or Twitter. I’m not sure it gives me enough motivation to do something I don’t want to. But it does help me stay on track and not forget the things I want to do.
- lmedinas 6y agoHave you used Habitica ? How does it compare to Streaks ? I was interest in trying Streaks also for the reason that it has a clean UI and an Apple Watch app but the high price is turning me down.
- jbjbjbjb 6y agoI’ve not tried Habitica. I went with streaks because it is a one off payment
- graeme 6y agoOh goodness, how did I never think of using “open app” automations in shortcuts to track opens. I use many shortcuts, but never put two and two together. Thank you!! And then do you have a negative habit in streaks, for example “no more than five instagram opens in a day”?
- graeme 6y agoActually, do you find the counter reliable? It hasn’t been working so well for me with the Tally app. Edit: worked well with streaks. I think tally’s shortcuts integration is poor, whereas Streaks’ is excellent
- jbjbjbjb 6y agoI think it works well enough for me I have my daily count set to 10. So I’m really trying to prevent those days where I’m mindlessly checking it throughout the day.
- stared 6y agoI did try quite a few things, but for me each app adds friction to tasks. Friction with setting, friction with changing priorities (a wall of shame of unfinished tasks saps the rest of willpower), friction with things that need to be done in a different way than provided by an app, etc. What I ended with is a daily Evernote checklist (any plaintext editor would work). Ticking is a reward on its own, while the overhead is minimal. A low-tech version of that is a Bullet Journal - a thing that actually works for quite a few of my friends (my Evernote is sort of a BJ, just electronic).
- bromuro 6y agoI agree with the friction. I haven’t found anything better than pen and paper :)
- httpsterio 6y agoPersonal anecdotes about habits and promises. I've tried many different things to motivate myself to either abstain from behavior like smoking or to keep up healthy streaks. An example would be a promise I made last Christmas to my fiancée. I've had a hard time quitting smoking because it's my go-to solution when life is stressful and feels like the walls are coming down. I gave her 500€ and told her that money is for a small holiday for us next summer if I don't smoke. If I smoke she can keep it all and use it for whatever she wants. Now when I wanted to smoke, I'd have to weigh the decision against that promise. The downside was, I had a clear price that I could decide to pay if I wanted a cigarette. Needless to say, I failed in two months and now she has a new sewing machine. On the other hand, I've now managed to keep a 45 day streak on duolingo. It's a way smaller thing and there's nothing externally motivating me except that damn little owl and a little lit flame icon displaying my streak. There's no penalty for failing nor is there any way to wiggle out of failing if I choose not to do my daily exercises. My main motivation is just to learn Welsh for the sake of it and I find it much easier to keep this up than any other habit which comes with internal or external pressure. Making your friends hold you accountable to something just sounds like the recipe for getting unmotivated and losing the actual goal and swapping the enjoyment of doing something into fear of some sort of penalty which one could decide was worth facing. I've also heard that talking too much of your ideas and goals will decrease motivation as you gain some feeling of success which should be rewarded to you after you've actually done the deed. I feel that this personally affects me and I've stopped talking about goals and I'm just trying to reach them and celebrating afterwards.
- PaulStatezny 6y agoAs far as I understand, your experience mirrors the research. External motivation (like a reward/penalty, accountability partner, etc) is weak. Internal motivation is incredibly strong. So the question becomes, how do you get internally motivated? I wish I had a reference, but I remember hearing about a study (here on HN) about where internal motivation comes from. The conclusion — a mixture of 3 elements: Purpose, competence, and freedom. Basically, you're in a situation where there's something that needs done. You have a strong sense of purpose that it ought to be done. (There's a huge "why" element to this!) You have the freedom to achieve it in whatever means you see fit. And you have any skills necessary. Sounds like with DuoLingo, you're already at the point where it's a locked in habit. (So your mind is on autopilot with that, not requiring a lot of motivation.) But with smoking, you never had enough internal motivation. And I imagine smoking like other "bad" habits has a big emotional element to it. (You turn to it to calm down stress/anxiety.) Have you thought about those emotional elements and what's causing those? Maybe trying to address those things _on top of_ an effort to kick smoking would be more effective.
- kirubakaran 6y agoIf you're interested in this, have a look at my https://crushentropy.com/ https://crushentropy.com/ It is markdown for planning and visualizing your day. I've been using it consistently for several years now and I can say it has made me a lot more productive, as I'm more mindful of where my time goes, how fragmented my day is, etc.
- rapnie 6y agoI am sure this is cool and all, but why would one put their daily planning in an anonymous online service by Insstant LLC that do not even bother to place a Privacy Policy link in the footer? Some slight improvements and more people might try it out.
- kirubakaran 6y agoThanks for the feedback. Will do.
- franklin_p_dyer 6y agoI highly recommend the book “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg. It describes lots of interesting scientific findings. That book introduced me to a technique for eliminating bad habits that has worked really well so far. Duhigg describes a case in which a lady was trying to stop biting her lip, so she was asked to carry a slip of paper with her, and whenever she felt the urge to bite her lip, instead write a tickmark on the piece of paper. This ended up working for her (and for me) because it is apparently easier to replace one habit with another (i.e. lip-biting with tickmark-writing) than to eliminate a habit completely. And once you’ve fully replaced your bad habit with writing tickmarks, it’s easy to stop doing the latter - just stop carrying pencil and paper in your pocket.
- cdiamand 6y agoI've started building a browser plugin to help me increase productivity while on the internet. The plan is to have it play music, overlay a score, or give me some other positive feedback when I'm looking at productive tabs. Conversely it will reduce stimulation or give me some kind of negative feedback when I'm looking at non productive pages. I'd be interested to hear if this is something others would use..
- Kelamir 6y agoThat is an interesting idea! What kind of negative feedback do you think would do the trick, cdiamand?
- cdiamand 6y agoWell, i think you could just take away all the enjoyable stimulus you provide (music, points, etc) for positive tabs. Turn down the music and subtract points. I think playing harsh noises or something like that would be over the top though
- godelski 6y agoThere's an easy way to form habits that's a bit silly but all my friends and I have had great success with it. Essentially you break things down into the smallest task possible (not smallest meaningful task, smallest). Then you start with only that task. Let's say that you want to floss every night. Start by just touching the floss when you brush your teeth. For me, after a few nights I got frustrated and just started flossing. On days I'm tired I still just touch the floss. Too much? Break it down more: Look at the floss Touch the floss Open the floss Pull out a little etc The idea (I didn't come up with it but forgot the source) is that many of the tasks we are trying to get ourselves aren't that hard but it is overcoming that _mental_ hurdle. So by breaking down into micro-tasks you slowly raise your threshold. You are also trivializing the tasks. It isn't hard to go from "My hand is already on the floss, why don't I pick it up?" and so on. I find that I get frustrated with the micro task within a week and just end up doing the thing. (I've been flossing my teeth 90+% of days for the last 6 months)
- arxpoetica 6y agoFun story. I remember meeting Tyler Renelle way back at a JS meetup when he first started developing it. Not 100% sure, but I think he originally built it off a framework called SocketStream[1], though I don't remember exactly (I was a contributor to SocketStream at the time). It might have actually been another of the similar frameworks[2] at the time that relied on sockets, realtime-app predecessors to React/Angular/Vue/Svelte. I used Habitica early on, and it was fairly fun, but I could never (irony much) keep the habit of using it. Update: looks like it was Derby: https://github.com/HabitRPG/habitica/search?o=desc&q=derby&s=committer-date&type=Commits https://github.com/HabitRPG/habitica/search?o=desc&q=derby&s... [1] https://github.com/socketstream/socketstream https://github.com/socketstream/socketstream [2] The competitors were Derby https://derbyjs.com/ https://derbyjs.com/ and...can't remember the other one off the top of my head.
- emerged 6y agoI really like Habitica, but like so many productivity apps, you can't nest tasks into arbitrarily deep hierarchies. To me, that's a completely essential feature. You can have sub-tasks, if I recall correctly, but only one level deep. There are so many great task management related tools which are missing this one critical feature, not sure why it isn't more common.
- Wronnay 6y agoThis. I try to use Kanboard for everything but the level of limited hierarchies makes complex projects very hard to manage. It's good for little projects but really big ones need multiple hierarchies or being broke down into smaller projects (but with lot's of smaller projects you don't have a good overview if your software doesn't allow multiple hierarchies).
- Kelamir 6y agoHabitica... straight to what I got from it: 1) girlfriend (she said 'Write: "met my gf there, 10/10 recommend" :derpy:') 2) a plenty of productive work done 3) friends! Habitica is awesome used in collaboration with other people. It helps one's motivation drastically to have people for accountability, which gamifies whatever one has got to do. I suggest you create or join a party that focuses on challenges and encourages cooperation. It has to have a handy medium for communication, like Discord. For example, we once held a challenge with several teams in a D&D-like game. To make a move, you had to get two hours of work done(in pomodoros). It looked like this: https://imgur.com/a/VA9vrmN https://imgur.com/a/VA9vrmN It motivated everyone to get lots of work done. I remember I slept only a few hours on the day of the launch, and that day had managed to do a few moves! Oh, the fun I had when I had stolen Zephyr Cape! It had increased my movement speed considerably, and as I had it, I had to use the power to its fullest, and was motivated to work more and more. Right now I am looking for another group to have a similar experience. If you are interested, or you've a group where we could benefit from each other, hit me up, nickname's Kelamir.