Habitica: Daily Habit Tracking instead of New Year’s Resolutions
In the spirit of February, where all New Year’s Resolutions go to die, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the habits I’m carrying into 2018.
Over the holidays, my friend Rebecca introduced me to the habit and productivity service Habitica, which I’ve been using to motivate me to work toward my goals of keeping better habits and getting things done.
“Habitica is a video game to help you improve real life habits. It “gamifies” your life by turning all your tasks (habits, dailies, and to-dos) into little monsters you have to conquer. The better you are at this, the more you progress in the game. If you slip up in life, your character starts backsliding in the game.”
So let me break down how the things I choose to track in Habitica that I use to replace New Year’s Resolutions.
Habits vs. Dailies
The difference between Habits and Dailies may seem a bit murky, but I personally use it to differentiate between things that need to be done and things that I would like to be done.
As someone who lives with mental illness, it is important to me that Dailies are tasks that on my lowest of low days, I can still expect to get done. No need to set myself up for failure. Habits, on the other hand, are things that push me toward my broader goals (ie: be healthy, be happy, build relationships, etc).
Let’s break down what I use as my Habits and Dailies.
HABITS
Do Something Creative
This can be anything, really. Reading. Writing. Drawing. Working on an essay about habit tracking tools. Anything that is engaging and productive. This one is important to me because creative endeavors can be intimidating to start but once I do, I remember how much joy it brings me to make things.
Do Something Social (Interact with a human.)
I surprise myself sometimes at how much even a short interaction with someone can boost my mood and make me feel more positively about the day as a whole.
Initiate Conversation with a Family Member (Call your mother.)
While this is not restricted to phone calls to the Mothership, it’s important to remind myself to keep in touch with family.
I can have a sort of Out of Sight/Out of Mind thing when it comes to family as we all live very far apart, but it reminds me to FaceTime my sister, text my dad, or actually call my mother.
Exercise
I’m just not a gym person, okay? I don’t have a fitness routine and I often don’t have the energy to go out of my way to exercise. But I can choose to walk 20 minutes across campus for a meeting instead of drive or just taking some time to stretch my muscles. Anything that gets me moving.
DAILIES
Get Going in the Morning (Get out of bed, ya walnut)
Sometimes… it really is the bare minimum.
Body Maintenance (Don’t die, okay?)
As I form new habits, this one will expand but for now it is just broken down into: wash your face and brush your teeth. It’s the basic cleanliness things that are an absolute must no matter how low functioning I am that day.
Eat Breakfast
Some people may not be huge breakfast fans but I know that I often feel nauseated and cranky when I skip breakfast. I need my OJ to really feel alive.
And the threat of staring at that unchecked box all day really gets me to grab a piece of toast on my way out the door at least.
Drink Enough Water (Hydrate before you diedrate)
I had chronic headaches and fatigue in high school and rather than a vitamin deficiency like we thought, I was really just always dehydrated.
So, gotta remind myself to hydrate.
Take Your Meds
As someone who is still fairly new to taking daily medication , having a daily task does wonders for not throwing off my brain chemistry.
Your Dailies can also be set to repeat with varying frequencies. I have weekly home cleaning and meal-prep tasks as well as a monthly banking task.
You also have a separate Tasks column for the things that come up in your day to day life. Put those things in Habitica! Why work on something if you’re not getting EXP and loot for it!?
Everyone’s habit goals are different, but I hope this was a helpful example of how to build out your Habitica tasks to help set you up for success!
Habitica organizes my personal life in the way that task management tools (like Asana) organize my work life. It motivates me and reminds me to take stock of the little things that make up my day, encouraging me to be intentional with them.
While also leveling up my character and buying her sweet new armor.
If this sounds like something you might like to try, Habitica has a helpful Overview for New Users that can get you acclimated to the mechanics.
