Use Case Spotlight: Pets

Illustration by Hachiseiko

Each month, our Use Case Spotlights highlight user stories and tips that can help you as you set up your own tasks, refresh things to add new challenges, or just get more motivated to keep at it! This month, we asked people to share how they use Habitica to help them take care of their pets — that’s the living, breathing kind, not the ones that hang out with your avatar!

CaptJnet had some great suggestions for taking care of her kitties, with specific examples of how to use the ability to schedule dailies to excellent effect!

I have a daily for feeding them, mostly to make sure I don’t forget to feed them their wet food for lunch or give them dinner too late.
I have a checklist daily for my evening daily cleaning and one of the items is scooping the litter.
I have a weekly for brushing them.
I have a tri-weekly for changing the litter and cleaning the litter boxes (I use a corn based litter which lasts much longer than clay).
I have a habit for playing with them.

CQMom added a To-Do idea — including a clever tip about adding the date you do the task:

Using the To Do- I have a general Things To Do This Month list, where I add the less frequent recurring jobs like changing the filter mediums and rinsing the pumps. When I actually do that particular job, I will add the date I did it, so when the month ends, I can see/plan out the next month’s target date.

ReDtheWolf has a great example of how you can set up a routine that meets multiple needs — your pet’s needs as well as your own!

I adapted AKC’s Fit Dog Program into a Habitica challenge that I used to set a goal to improve both my own daily walking and the time I spend with my dog! To qualify for the AKC reward, a dog owner needs to walk 30 minutes total (two 15 minute session for dogs or people that benefit from shorter walks) 5x a week for three consecutive months. Turning it into a habitica challenge kept me motivated to take a walk even on days where the weather was a little rainy or I was “too tired.” I was so impressed by the increase in energy in both myself and my senior dog! Walking is now a daily routine and how we both unwind from the end of the day.

leomona has a story to share, but just FYI, it does involve a pet’s terminal illness, as a warning before you read:

Habitica was incredibly useful when I was caring for my late cat who had end stage renal failure. I have ADHD, and there was a lot to keep track of – medicines that each could be up to thrice daily, supplements that needed to be added to some meals but not at all, subcutaneous fluids, weekly vet appointments but various tests on more irregular schedules, different foods that needed to be ordered early enough that she wouldn’t ever run out because it wasn’t the kind of thing the local shops stock… keeping track of all of that was extremely cognitively demanding for me even with this app’s help, and would probably have been impossible without it. And so I wouldn’t forget in between all the medical concerns, I also gave myself dailies for brushing her and for sitting with her and watching bird/squirrel videos.

She lived for nearly a year after reaching stage 4 and kept excitedly chattering away at those squirrels throughout, so I’m pretty happy with that outcome 🙂

Check out the full posts by these users and a bunch of others in the Use Case Spotlights Guild! Don’t forget to keep an eye out for the new theme announcement, too: if you contribute to the next topic discussion, you could find your examples shared here to help guide other Habiticans in their own setup.

You can also check out all our past Use Case Spotlights for more ideas!

Guild Spotlights: Our Favourites

With all the Guilds on Habitica, sometimes it can be difficult to know where to start. This year, our Guild Spotlights are highlighting the favourite Guilds of Habitica’s staff, moderators and high-level contributors! If you want to curate your Habitica experience and join active, positive Guilds, this is a great way to pick up some new ideas for Guilds to join.

This week, we’ve been chatting to moderator Dewines about her favourite guilds and what she’d recommend for other users! You’ve probably seen Dewines in the Tavern and around the guilds, and she puts in a lot of work helping to keep challenges tidy as well.

Over to her for the guilds she recommends!

My long-term projects are language learning and creating content for my YouTube channel. Some projects can seem daunting due to their size and the length of time it takes to complete them and I wanted somewhere to post updates once or twice a month to keep me accountable and to track my progress. I do love the Short-term accountability guild (aka STAG) but it’s too fast moving for what I needed. I therefore created the Long-Term Goal Accountability guild which is intended to be slower moving and which has a monthly challenge to encourage guild members to report on their progress.

However, for those who want a faster moving guild, the Long Term Project Guild is an active community with a variety of challenges to help youwork each day to get that project done!

For language learning, the Language Hackers Guild has a monthly language learning challenge and also a challenge to encourage you to read in the language you are studying. It’s a friendly and helpful guild for languages learners of all levels.

Finally, I want to mention the Haiku guild where all posts must be in the form of a haiku. This guild is about slowing down, observing nature or the people around you and writing a little poem in no more than 17 syllables. Perhaps poetry is not to your taste, but whichever serious task-focused guilds you join, I suggest you also find one that is simply for fun and creativity. There are lots to choose from.

Wise words!

You can jump in and check out these Guilds for yourself at the links above, but if none of these sound like your thing, there are lots of other Guild Spotlights on this blog that you can check out. There’s a new spotlight every month, so keep an eye out for more!

Drops

It’s Wiki Wednesday! Once a month we highlight a helpful post from the Wiki with tips about productivity, wellness, and optimizing your use of Habitica!

If you’ve been a member of Habitica for long, you’ve probably noticed that when you complete your tasks, sometimes you get a piece of food, Hatching Potion or an egg. We’ll let the Wizards of the Wiki do the introductions:

Drops offer players the chance to receive special items when completing tasks. A new player will start to receive normal drops (eggs, hatching potions, and food) upon completing their second task.

When a player receives a drop, they will be alerted via a notification, which appears near the top right corner of the website or at the bottom of the Android and iOS mobile apps.

But what drops are available and how do you maximize your chances of getting them? Read all about it on the Wiki!

Use Case Spotlight: Hobbies

Illustration by Leephon

Each month, our Use Case Spotlights highlight user stories and tips that can help you as you set up your own tasks, refresh things to add new challenges, or just get more motivated to keep at it! This month, we wanted to know how people use Habitica to make time for and organize their hobbies — a challenge I’m sure many of us are familiar with!

yesmarielle talked about keeping Habitica specifically to manage their off-time:

I am a recovering workaholic and dedicate Habitica purely to hobbies and self care — no work tasks allowed! Doing this has really helped me make progress on drafting a novel, keeping up with my Spanish lessons, and making art again.

One of my specific habits is “Write 100 words” — making the word count small and getting to tap plus for every 100 words is highly motivating for me. I went from 0 to over 13000 words for my novel idea since joining Habitica in August.

Another habit I have is “Practice 15 minutes of Spanish” which can be a module in my Rosette Stone app, writing in my Spanish journal, or actively listening to TV or music in Spanish. Fun bonus – if I write 100 words in my Spanish journal, I get to tap both of those habits.

Sometimes I want to level up or buy new equipment or a fun background (I subscribe, but only let myself buy gems with the gold I earn from tasks), and I will do one of my hobbies that I wouldn’t have bothered with before. It’s been great!

lindala has a great suggestion for a daily:

I also have a daily reminder to be creative for 15 min which I love because it can be anything: cooking a new meal (or even just picking some edible flowers to add to my salads), drawing a bit, sewing, etc. It also helps me make sure I do at least something tiny every day that brings me joy, even on days when I need to study a lot or have a long day at work.

…and both lindala and moor-rose suggested a guild that has helped them, Digital Addicts Anonymous. moor-rose also suggested how to create some habits inspired by that guild:

I’ve created some habits to encourage healthier uses of odd moments: read instead of procrastinating on the computer, colour instead of checking my phone, etc.

–_Vwendwe_– explained how they’re using a mixture of task types to keep track of a long-term big project:

I’m currently making a granny square blanket with 150 squares.

I have a to-do called make the blanket where I have a checklist with the things I need to do to finish it: crocheting the squares, blocking them, sewing them together, attaching a border etc. It’s set on hard because finishing sth like this is hard for me. Also the long time it’s sitting there gives me an extra nice bonus for eventually finishing it so it’s further motivation.

Then I have a progress bar in the notes section where I keep track of how many squares I did.

A daily task reminds me to crotchet 5 squares a day. This will change to sth like “sew 10 together” when I have them all done. Most likely I will have a daily at the end of “weave in ends for 15min”…

Do you manage your hobbies via Habitica? Has this post given you ideas? We’d love to hear all about them! You can share them in the Use Case Spotlights guild… and don’t forget, if you share your stories in response to next month’s prompt, you could also be featured in next month’s spotlight!

Guild Spotlights: Our Favourites

Ceran!

With all the Guilds on Habitica, sometimes it can be difficult to know where to start. This year, our Guild Spotlights are going to highlight the favourite Guilds of Habitica’s staff, moderators and some high-level contributors! If you want to curate your Habitica experience and join active, positive Guilds, this is a great way to pick up some new ideas for Guilds to join.

This month, Ceran has joined us to talk about good guilds to hang out in! Ceran is a socialite and challenger who has been helping out in the Tavern and other guilds and making great challenges for everyone to join for a long time.

The Short Term Goal Accountability Guild – Affectionately called the STAG guild by its regulars after a typo, this was one of my first guilds on habitica, and is still one of my favourite ones. Full of amazing and supportive people that will cheer you on – no goal is too small or too unimportant to get support and some kindhearted badgering for. There are a variety of challenges aimed at helping you achieve those goals, and you can learn a lot of great productivity games and methods from the chat. Also a good source for pictures of cute badgers and other adorable critters.

The Tea Room – The best place for talking about all things tea on habitica. (I admit I might be a bit biased here, since I own the guild, but why would I own it if I didn’t think it was great, right.) Do you want to squee about your latest tea purchases, get recommendations for what tea to drink, how to store or brew it the best way or what to eat with it, do you want support for getting your overflowing tea stash under control, or are you looking for that particular tea that you remember the taste and look of but forgot what it was? Then you’re probably going to have fun in this guild!

Knitting and Crocheting! – What goes better with a nice cup of tea than a bit of knitting? Right, nothing or some crocheting! This guild is a fountain of knowledge for how to turn a string into something wearable with the help of a stick or two. Just reading along is already fun, and learning about all the tips, tricks and different methods others use, not to mention looking at the pretty pictures when someone shows off their project. And who else would understand the pain of that one dropped stitch 30 rows below if not the members in this guild. Spinning or other yarn and fiber related craft talk is also welcome.

Postcrossing – A small but regular guild for lovers of postcards, and the website of the same name where random strangers from all over the world exchange postcards. There’s talk about the sent and received cards, where to get the best postcards and stamps, the intricacies of international addresses, and much more.

Thanks for sharing, Ceran! If anyone feels like checking out those guilds, you should feel free to follow the links and take a look round. Don’t forget to say hi!

If none of these guilds appeal, don’t worry! There are a lot of other Guild Spotlights, including ones from moderators and other contributors, so there’s something for everyone. There’s a new spotlight every month, so you can also check back in a month or so for some more handpicked recommendations!

Transformation Items

Spooky Sparkles are the Fall Festival Transformation Item!

It’s Wiki Wednesday! Once a month we highlight a helpful post from the Wiki with tips about productivity, wellness, and optimizing your use of Habitica!

Have you been celebrating the Grand Gala this month? If so, you might have spotted the seasonal Transformation Item already: the Spooky Sparkles potion. As always, the Habitica Wiki has an article to explain everything, so I’ll let the Wizards of the Wiki take it away:

A transformation item is a special item available for purchase in the Seasonal Shop for 15 gold during the Grand Gala Seasonal Events. They can be used to transform your party members’ avatars (or your own) into a character specified by the item. Any of these can be bought during their respective Seasonal Event and stored up for use at any time of year.

You can read the full article to check out the various different items and the unique looks they can give to your avatar!

The Wiki can tell you almost everything you need to know about Habitica, but there’s a lot to read! If you’re having trouble figuring out where to start and would like an easy introduction to some of Habitica’s events and features, take a look at previously featured Wiki articles in past Wiki Wednesday spotlights!

Guild Spotlights: Our Favourites

Squall

With all the Guilds on Habitica, sometimes it can be difficult to know where to start. This year, our Guild Spotlights are going to highlight the favourite Guilds of Habitica’s staff, moderators and some high-level contributors! If you want to curate your Habitica experience and join active, positive Guilds, this is a great way to pick up some new ideas for Guilds to join.

This month, Squall has joined us to talk about his favourite guilds! Squall lends us his Blacksmithing skills to help us fix bugs and add features, and has also created a third-party tool to help enhance how people use Habitica.

So here are the guilds he recommends!

As a Habitican blacksmith (code contributor), I hang around in the Aspiring Blacksmiths and Aspiring Comrades guilds quite often. It’s interesting to see what others are working on and I also try to help other contributors when I can.

Continuing with the programming theme, The Developers Guild is a guild with discussions about all things related to programming and software development, such as different programming languages, tools, learning etc.

If you’ve already been in Habitica for a while and looking for something more or just different ways to play, check out  Habitica Plus guild. I like it because there are a lot of challenges and other creative ideas to modify Habitica usage.

I also like the avatar aspect of Habitica and try to come up with some creative outfits every once in a while. But I recently came across Random Habitica Costumes guild, which is a refreshing take on that as it is a place where people share random avatar outfits (generated using a tool called Habitican Randomizer). There are some interesting and wacky avatars there…

Thanks for sharing, Squall! If anyone feels like jumping in, there’s no time like the present…

If not, no need to fret! There are a lot of other Guild Spotlights, including ones from moderators and other contributors, so there’s something for everyone. There’s a new spotlight every month, so you can also check back in a month or so for some more handpicked recommendations!

Use Case Spotlight: Creating Positivity

Illustration by Katy133

Each month, our Use Case Spotlights highlight user stories and tips that can help you as you set up your own tasks, refresh things to add new challenges, or just get more motivated to keep at it! This month, we wanted to know how people use Habitica to create (and maintain) positivity in their lives — so here are their answers!

EliotThe has some task suggestions, to start off with:

I have two Dailies that I use to help me keep a positive attitude throughout the day. The one for the morning is titled “Morning Reminder Today is an opportunity to become a little bit more like the person I want to be.” The one for the evening is titled “Evening Reminder My best is good enough.” I check them off whenever I have acted according to these beliefs. Usually the morning one gets checked off, but some days I don’t check off the evening one because I’ve been unreasonably mean to myself for falling short of my goals. These tasks help me practice self-love: I should expect myself to do no less than my best (the morning reminder), but I also should not demand more than my best (the evening reminder). It may seem silly, and I was even a bit embarrassed to have these in my list for a while… But over time I realized that these “tasks” are harder than they seem. They’re also very motivating!

Langerhan offers a suggestion for a powerful Habit for positivity:

I have a habit to “find the positive in a situation”. It helps me keep track of how I’m approaching things, and if I’m looking to score more gold or XP, it’s a way for me to approach a situation with new eyes.

moor-rose discusses how just getting organised and being able to reflect on her progress has helped her mood in general:

A lot of my tasks and habits are aimed at creating balance in my life – working hard and then relaxing, in particular through being mindful and spending time with friends. Challenges focusing on self-care and awareness of the seasons are my favourites at the moment – eating seasonal food, noticing and appreciating the weather, checking in on mood and energy.

I have a lot of anxiety around organisation and performance, so the help that I’ve found here in breaking tasks down and cultivating ‘flow’ has been terrific for my mood! But I’d say the three things that have really led to a boost in positivity since joining Habitica have been increased self-awareness, increased self-empowerment, and the sense of rhythm it’s imparted to my day.

In other words, there’s a lot of gentle built-in self-reflection in Habitica. I feel more aware of my mood and better equipped to identify and address problems – if I don’t know what to do, there’s almost always a relevant challenge! And what I learn from them gets fed back in to the basic routine and structure of my day.

And FayTheUnicorn pointed to Habitica’s community as a huge asset:

[T]he biggest and most surprising way that I use Habitica to create positivity in my life is through participating in positive and supportive communities that I find here. These are not things that have actually existed in the real world I’ve been living in, at least not that I can recall. But here I find people who want to grow and evolve, and who are willing to work hard to do it. I find people who are caring, compassionate and supportive. I find people encouraging, coaching, advising, and consoling others. That alone makes my subscription totally worth it!

We’re glad to hear that Habitica can be such a positive force for everyone! Do you have any stories to share about how Habitica has helped you create positivity, or stick to it despite the odds? We’d love to hear your stories! You can share them in the Use Case Spotlights guild… and if you stick around and share your stories in response to next month’s prompt, you could be featured in next month’s spotlight!

Mystery Item

September 2020’s Mystery Items: The Marvelous Moth Set

It’s Wiki Wednesday! Once a month we highlight a helpful post from the Wiki with tips about productivity, wellness, and optimizing your use of Habitica!

Last month we highlighted the post on Mystic Hourglasses, so what better follow-up than to highlight some of the things you can use them on? Mystery Items are one of the perks of a Habitica subscription, but there have been a lot of items in the past… which you can still get with a Mystic Hourglass!

There’s lots of info about the Mystery Items on the Wiki, but here’s an excerpt:

Players who already have a subscription at the start of a month receive that month’s Mystery Items within the first three days of the month (at different times for different subscribers). Anyone who starts a subscription during a month receives that month’s Items as soon as the subscription is created.

Read the full article to check out past Mystery Item sets — maybe you’ll find some inspiration for a special outfit or two…

There’s a lot of information about Habitica on the Wiki, so if you’re having trouble figuring out where to start, you might like to take a look at previously featured Wiki articles in past Wiki Wednesday spotlights!

Guild Spotlights: Our Favourites

CernyPie

With all the Guilds on Habitica, sometimes it can be difficult to know where to start. This year, our Guild Spotlights are going to highlight the favourite Guilds of Habitica’s staff, moderators and some high-level contributors! If you want to curate your Habitica experience and join active, positive Guilds, this is a great way to pick up some new ideas for Guilds to join.

This month, CernyPie has joined us to talk about her favourite guilds! CernyPie has contributing as a socialite on Habitica for literally years, sharing her experience with users who need help. Say hi if you spot her in the Tavern… or one of her favourite guilds below!

Evidence Based Fitness Guild: This guild is equal parts helpful information and active knowledgeable members. It runs some helpful challenges for all aspects of health. I have found it a great community for fitness support and workout ideas. I am not the type of person who finds exercise inherently fun, but this guild gives me the motivation I need to keep pushing myself for the better.

Bakin’ Bakin’ All Day Long: If you’re looking for a fun community with experience and tips to increase your baking prowess, this is the place to be! Personally, I enjoy baking, but I’m not amazing at it. This is now my go-to guild for baking challenges and discussion where all my baking answers are one post away. I also love that the very nature of the challenges pushes me to try baking things I would normally not even think of. Ever thought of baking your own pretzels or crackers? Me neither! But now I’ve done both thanks to the support of this great community.

Skin Support Guild: This is a relatively new addition to my favorite guilds. If you have any skin issues or concerns, there is someone here who will have advice or suggestions about how to help. I like just reading other people’s routines and coming up with ideas to tweak my own. If you get the chance, check it out!

Thanks to CernyPie for sharing these picks! If any of them speak to you, there’s no time like the present to jump in and say hi.

If not, no need to fret! We’ve done a lot of other Guild Spotlights over time, including ones from other contributors and moderators, so there’s bound to be something to pique your interest. And of course, there’s a new spotlight every month, so you can check back in a month or so for some more recommendations!