An Honest Habitica Review: How Habitica Genuinely Changed My Life

I have often struggled with staying on top of my tasks and goals at a life-wide level.

At work, I’ve always stayed on top of my everyday tasks, but would often procrastinate over some of the bigger and more daunting ones. This would lead to to being “busy” working on the wrong things in order to defer the more important things which required more focus.

In my home life, things would be even worse. I’d regularly forget, neglect, or lose motivation to do the things that mattered to me. I would start a new project or a new habit, but soon lose motivation and give up. It felt like I was wasting my time and potential, which I really hated in myself as it was completely at odds with my core values around hard work and drive.

I tried various apps and methods to help me organise my life, but none of them would really work for very long. I would cycle between handwritten lists, various to-do and list apps, handwritten or digital planners, and more besides. These things would work for a week or two while they’re fresh and I’m newly motivated. But they would never last long enough to become habitual and effortless.

But everything changed when I discovered Habitica.

What is Habitica?

Habitica is not just another task management app. It is a free habit-building and productivity app that uses retro RPG elements to gamify your tasks and goals. It essentially allows you to turn your life into a game. No; nothing like The Sims.

You start by creating a very simple character, and building out your task lists. Every time you do something good, like finishing a work assignment, exercising, or meditating, you get rewarded with experience points, gold, and, if you’re lucky, items. Every time you do something bad, like missing a deadline, eating junk food, or procrastinating, you lose health and mana.

Habits, Dailies and To-Dos

There are three types of task which are all measured slightly differently:

1. Habits – repeatable unlimitedly and can either be positive or negative, and can have different difficulties which effect the reward system (more on that later!). For example; I have “finish a glass of water” set as an “easy” a positive habit, so I get a small reward for completing it. On the other hand, “go to bed before midnight” is one of my “hard” positive habits. This gives me greater rewards when I complete it, as this is something I personally find much more difficult.
2. Dailies – these are actions that are repeated on schedule, which might be once a day every day, or on certain days, or weekly, monthly, etc. When they’re due, they light up in your Dailies list, and ticking them grants you rewards similar to Habits. However, if a Daily is due and you don’t complete it, the next day you will lose some health as a punishment, similar to ticking a negative Habit.
3. To-Dos – these are one off tasks that need doing once and disappear as completed when ticked. You can set difficulty the same as with Habits and Dailies, but you can also set due dates.

What Habitica did for me that genuinely changed my life

Habitica changed my life in many ways. Here are some of the benefits I experienced from using the app:

• It made me more productive and organised. I was able to break down my tasks into manageable chunks and prioritise them according to their urgency and importance. I can also set deadlines, due dates, and reminders for my tasks, so I never miss anything important. Habitica helped me track my progress and see how much I accomplished each day, week, month, and year.
• It made me more motivated and accountable. I was able to see the immediate consequences of my actions on my character’s health and stats. It rewards me for doing the things I want to do, and penalises me for doing the things I want to avoid. I didn’t want to let myself or my Party members down, so I tried to avoid negative habits and complete positive ones. I feel a genuine sense of achievement and satisfaction every time I complete a task or level up my character, and a deep drive to never want to miss a daily task or have to tick a bad habit.
• It made me more creative and fun-loving. I enjoyed customising my character’s appearance, equipment, pets, and mounts. I also had fun exploring the different features of the app, such as the shops, market, seasonal events, challenges, and achievements.
• It makes me more connected and supported. Habitica has a wonderful community of users who are friendly, helpful, and supportive. I joined a Party where we participate in Challenges that provide us with fun rewards. There are also lots of communities for specific focuses, such as productivity, fitness, self-improvement, etc. which you can connect with via Challenges and Discord servers.

Supporting a new way of life

Habitica is not just an app for me. It’s genuinely become a part of my day-to-day way of life. It’s playing a huge part in my ongoing strive to continually improve and become 1% better every day. This one app has helped me become a better person in every aspect of my life. It truly has made me happier, healthier, and more successful.

But don’t take my word for it: you can also check out this review by TechRadar , where they perfectly sum it up with:

Habitica is the perfect task management app for people who love games

TechRadar

If you are looking for a way to make your life more exciting and rewarding, I highly recommend you give Habitica a try. You can download it for free from your app store or via the official website. Trust me; you won’t regret it.

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Habitica FAQs

Here are some of the questions I asked in the beginning, which may be helpful for others!