The “Behind The Scenes” series is a chance for us to give you a glimpse into the inner workings of HabitRPG, Inc., the company that makes Habitica. Every so often, we’ll treat you to some silly staff shenanigans or show you the work that goes into your favorite features. Enjoy!
Staff members came from far and wide. Vicky, Leslie, and Beth, the Californians of the group, rounded up our more far-flung colleagues: Matteo, from Italy; Phillip from Germany; Alys from Australia; Sabe from Wisconsin; and Keith from Texas!
In two cars (the “fun bagel car” and “the spaceship”) we all journeyed into the desert. We hoped to get some work done, but also to have a good time and bond as a team.
First, we made a stop for supplies. You can see that we kept our priorities very practical.
Phillip spent much of the retreat in a fearless quest to taste test every possible peanut butter and chocolate product available.Alas, the T-Rex cookie jar and the pizza slice pool float did not make the final cut.
Once at the house, we took some time to unpack the sensible items we had all brought for the trip.
The force is strong with Alys! She’s demoing a cool lightsaber her housemate made!Leslie and Beth took the time to personalize the shower curtain purchased for the ladies’ powder room in grand Habitican fashion.We perched on the house’s many couches and worked away for the majority of the super hot daytime hours. Imagine, if you will, the soothing sound of eight keyboards softly clicking.When discussing exciting new features, things occasionally moved to the carpet. In lieu of toy cars, remote controls served as placement markers!We had a meeting with several of our fabulous designers to discuss exciting new features coming to the site and apps! This meeting, however, came to a sudden stop……when the staff spied a road runner on the patio! However, we did not see a coyote in pursuit, nor we did experience the deployment of any Acme products.
Although we spent a lot of time focusing on work, we definitely took time to enjoy ourselves.
Keith proved himself a worthy Grill Master (as a Texan apparently this comes naturally!) and Vicky introduced us all to the exciting world of grilled fruit.We enjoyed the fresh desert air while having lunch al fresco!Some team members took a night hike in Joshua Tree National Park! We had a lot of fun exploring the desert with its eerie Joshua trees, beautiful plants, and rock formations.This wouldn’t be a proper gathering of Habitica staff members without some silliness. And animal hats are exactly the kind of silliness we appreciate. Beth, Leslie, and Vicky are getting in the mood for the Summer Splash Gala!Although arguably Matteo found the best hat. Flying Pig for the win!As the retreat drew to a close, we stopped for a peaceful picnic in a scenic canyon oasis.
All in all we had a wonderful time, filled with jokes, exotic chocolates, delicious food, desert scenery, and great company. You can check out our Tweets and Instagram posts from the retreat for more fun- search the hashtag HabiticaHouse!
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!
In the last three editions of Wiki Wednesday we looked at some Sample tasks to help you to set up or re-evaluate your Habits, Dailies, and To-Dos. This month we’re going to take a look at that last, oft-neglected column: Rewards. Do you get stuck when you try to think of customized Rewards to place here? Or do you want fresh, new ideas to boost your motivation? Luckily, the Wiki Scribes have a fantastic article devoted to Sample Custom Rewards!
The Custom Rewards feature allows players to add personal, customized purchases to the Rewards list. This page contains some examples of Custom Rewards to help you develop your own.
Want to know more? Head over to the wiki to check out the full article!
Welcome to theContributor Spotlight Series, where we interview amazing members of the Habitica community! Today we’re chatting with Alys, one of our Moderators and Blacksmiths! She helps with managing the community as well as smashing bugs and helping to implement new features! Alys, how did you get involved with Habitica?
I came across the Kickstarter and it looked really interesting. I quickly realised that if I decided to stay with Habitica, I’d want to collect all the pets and gear so I paid into the Kickstarter at the level that let me get all the backer items. My best decision ever! 🙂 I loved the novel motivation and was impressed by the open approach to seeking help from the community.
What’s your proudest contribution to Habitica?
The change to cron that stopped it running prematurely when you went through daylight savings or changed timezones. It took me three tries to find a method that worked well, but when we finally went through a daylight savings change without widespread unfair damage, it was a great relief!
What are your secret superpowers?
I seem to be good at testing when I have time to really focus on it. I also have an amazing ability to make friends with Australian wildlife!
What are your secret weaknesses?
An inability to focus on the most important things and get them done first. Freezing with indecision when I have too much to do.
What are your favorite Habitican pets/mounts?
Such a difficult question! I like Cerberus, the three-headed dog from the Kickstarter campaign, of course. The owls are adorable. The baby mammoth is just the cutest thing ever! The egg basket mounts are gorgeous! How can you choose?
What some things you’re tracking in Habitica?
My Dailies are all the things that really need to be done to stop my life getting out of control, like making sure the rubbish bins are taken out on the right days and that my inboxes are emptied each day (although that one is sadly red). My To-Dos are filled with things I want to do for Habitica but rarely get around to doing due to that secret weakness of mine.
What do you like to do in your free time?
Being out in nature, surrounded by trees, and watching wild animals and birds in my garden. At night, I love gazing up at the stars and imagining what it would be like if we could travel to other planets. I enjoy reading science fiction, although don’t make enough time for it, and I also have a fondness for P.G. Wodehouse, Rudyard Kipling, and historical fiction in general.
The Report a Bug Guild! I quite like how that Guild’s turned out; I think it works well. It’s another thing I’m proud of.
Want to learn about some of the other contributors who make Habitica such a cool place? Check the Contributor Spotlight andStaff Spotlight tags on our blog!
In last month’s Use Case Spotlight we learned all about different ways that folks in the community use Habitica to manage their Arts and Crafts-related tasks. This month, we’re taking a trip into the great outdoors! Here are some great tips, tricks, and ideas for using Habitica to set (and maintain!) new tasks and goals related to Outdoor Hobbies. These come from your fellow players in the Use Case Spotlights Guild!
diapasoun starts us off with a focus on outdoor time as self-care!
I have two main Outdoor Hobbies: walking and gardening. I have a self-care daily which has “go for a morning walk” as a checkbox. I also have an exercise daily due once a week, with 5 checkboxes for hitting 10k steps on 5 different days. The regular daily keeps me going each day, and the weekly helps me build a sense of long-term accomplishment. I also have a daily for checking in on all my plants: watering them, pruning, spot re-potting, whatever it is that they might need. It definitely helps keep my plants alive, and therefore makes my plants and me happy!
tanelf uses Dailies to remember to enjoy the fruits of their gardening labor.
I’m finding Habitica incredibly useful for my outdoor hobby, gardening. For years, we’ve successfully planted a food garden, but we usually struggle on the harvesting part — I just forget to go check what’s ripe at any given time, pick it, and use it.
This year, I have a handy daily — with checkboxes — that helps me remember to get out there, tend to the garden, and harvest!
Claire Wright uses To-Dos to help motivate cleanup after time with equine friends.
I have a daily set up for 30 minutes of activity; I also have habits created for 60 minutes of outdoor activity and 90 minutes of outdoor activity. I do a lot of horse riding and I am really bad at cleaning my boots and kit afterwards. I always set up a ‘To-do’ to motivate me into cleaning the mud off my boots in a timely fashion!
Eri101 uses a Challenge from a Guild to make sure to get some device-free time in their day.
I’m part of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Guild, and one of the Dailies in their challenge “First Years” involves taking some time to get away from electronics and get outside. I make sure to take some time to walk around outside while I can during my workday. Not necessarily a hobby, but something that does help me get some fresh air.
There were so many helpful and exciting tips we couldn’t feature them all here! You can see them all and join in the discussion in the Use Case Spotlights Guild– one of your ideas could be featured next month! Look for an announcement of next month’s theme from Bailey soon.
Also, if you missed it you may want to take a look at our most recent Guild Spotlight, which showcases groups dedicated to Arts and Crafts!
Want to join the Habitica team? We’re looking to hire a new mobile contractor!
We’re particularly interested in people who have a good understanding of either Android development or iOS development (including knowledge of ObjC and Swift). Bonus points if you also have experience with: Core Data, Reactive Programming (ReactiveCocoa/RxJava), Realm, and Kotlin, as well as familiarity with iOS and/or Android UI design principles, patterns, and best practices. Our ideal dev would be eager to push the limits of what our apps can currently do, with an eye for details, a drive to make their work both technically and visually sound, and an interest in expanding their knowledge of current advancements in the field. Diverse candidates are encouraged to apply!
To apply, send an email to vicky@habitica.com with a CV that includes your experience with the items listed above, your Habitica username, and your favorite nerdy pursuit. We can’t wait to hear from you!
Many Habiticans excel in creative and artistic pursuits, so it’s no surprise that we have a large number of Guilds organized by and for creators, makers, and artists! In this month’s Spotlight we’re focusing just a few of Habitica’s Guilds that are related to Arts- and-Crafts.
Are you a yarn-craft enthusiast? If so, Knitting and Crocheting is a great place to meet fellow Habiticans that share your passion! Discuss your projects in the chat and check out a wide variety of Challenges to help you start and finish all the projects on your list! (Bonus: this Guild is run by our very own Lemoness!)
This Guild is a great place to discuss your work in visual art in any medium. The Artists Guild has a great list of Challenges that will help give you an extra boost of motivation on your projects. Share your work in the Guild chat and discuss your favorite tips and tricks for media, techniques, or for getting yourself motivated!
If you are a crafter, maker, or artist of any kind, but also want to geek out, this is the Guild for you! Join other fantastically creative folks who proudly call themselves “nerds” here. Discuss projects, the work of artists and creators you admire, and get helps and tips in the chat. This Guild also has a great Challenge focused on helping you finish a U.F.O.(un-finished object)!
These Guilds and many others are here to help you manage your creative projects! And if you’re looking for more advice on using Habitica to help you with arts and crafts, be sure to read this month’s Use Case Spotlight, featuring tips and tricks from fellow Habiticans!
Hello friends! It’s Mental Health Awareness Month, and while behind-the-scenes posts usually cover some aspect of how HabitRPG, Inc. runs as a company, I’ve had several conversations with both friends and business contacts about how I established my meditation practice. It’s been a stressful year in a lot of ways, and meditation plays a critical role in making sure I don’t run out screaming into the night, never to return. This post is for those of you who’ve added a “Meditation” daily to your Habitica tasks, but haven’t quite managed to make it stick. Without further ado….
Why meditate? An introduction:
Before getting deep into the “how,” let’s begin with the “why.” There’s plenty out there about the benefits of meditation and why you should start. Wikipedia has an overview, the Buffer blog has an excellent post breaking down some of the physiological effects of a meditation practice, and finally, Chade Meng Tan’s book, Search Inside Yourself, covers a lot of the science and applications of a mindfulness based stress reduction practice, particularly in the workplace.
Some benefits that I’ve experienced personally since establishing a regular meditation practice:
I can offset the effects of sleep deprivation if I take time to meditate, i.e. if I should have gotten 90 minutes more sleep, taking 20 minutes or so to observe my breathing helps balance out some of the crankiness and the tendency to overreact to things.
It’s easier for me to recognize when my brain is basically a barrel of monkeys and take action to mitigate it or redirect my attention towards high-energy, low-cognitive load tasks.
I’m better at engaging with people and being patient with them even as my first reaction is a negative one, like irritation, or annoyance. (Not perfect, but improved.)
For the remainder of this post I’ll be operating under the assumption that you know meditation is a thing, and you want to do that thing! Only you haven’t quite yet cracked the “how” of it and the daily is starting to go dark red.
The “How” of Meditating:
There are plenty of different types of meditation. Here, I focus on mindfulness meditation. (Technically, “mindfulness based stress reduction” pioneered for the secular corporate world by people like Jon Kabat-Zinn. Whatever title works for you!)
Basic Technique: Make yourself comfortable, whether standing, seated, or lying down. Focus on your breath. You know how to breathe! Keep breathing. That’s all: one breath in, one breath out.
Too simple to be true? Yes, in a way–when it comes down to it, a breath isn’t necessarily a straightforward thing.
It has stages: when you inhale, when you hit the top of your inhale for a split second before pushing all the air out of your lungs, when you exhale, when you hit bottom of the breath but aren’t ready to inhale yet.
It has qualities: the temperature of the ambient air. The speed at which you’re breathing. Whether you’re inhaling through both nostrils equally, or one side more than the other (hooray, allergies). If your breath hits the back of your throat, or hovers somewhere above the roof of your mouth.
It has physiological effects: If you’re breathing too fast, you get lightheaded (and maybe should slow down a bit). Your chest may raise and lower, or your belly.
While you’re in a meditation session, you want to pay attention to your breath. I think of meditation as “dedicated time to get better at feeling myself breathe” and spend my session trying to pay attention to the above sensations.
One breath in, one breath out.
Repeat as necessary.
Next level:
I’m going to assume you managed the aforementioned just fine. If that’s all you need, you can stop reading here and count it as a session! For others, that’s not enough–you don’t feel like you’re meditating yet. Keep reading.
One full breath-cycle of an inhale/exhale takes me about 10 seconds. It might take you longer, or you may breathe faster and require less time. In any case, you can manage a focused meditation session of one breath-cycle now, so your next stage is 3 cycles of breathing and breathing out. Doable, yes?
Now you’re ready for a minute-long meditation session. This is usually where people start feeling a bit daunted, especially if they’ve been trying and failing to build a sustained meditation practice. But if you think about it, a minute breaks down into roughly 5 or 6 cycles. My suggestion, when you’re at this level, is to use a timer–I like Calm, which is beautiful and has timers available in a web browser at :https://www.calm.com/meditate/program/Htq1PUleuW or in their apps for iOS and Android. But you can really use any timer of your choice. I personally gravitate towards soft bells to announce the end of a session, but there are plenty of other options.
Remember, the technique is: one breath in, one breath out.
Then repeat 4-8 times, however many breath-cycles it takes for the 1 minute timer to ring.
If you’re human (I hope you’re human! I’m pretty sure I’m not qualified to talk about how meditation works for non-humans) your brain is going to be bouncing all over the place like kittens being lined up for a photograph.
Don’t worry; that’s normal. Just notice it–and by “notice it” basically do the mental equivalent of nodding at someone in the hall like “oh hey, I see you” and continue on to your business. In this case, your business is BREATHING LIKE A CHAMP. (Seriously. Not dead? YOU WIN AT BREATHING.)
When the timer goes off, that’s it! Congratulations, you’ve completed a 1 minute meditation session. That’s really all you need to build the habit–a spare sixty seconds per day to ride your breath.
Moving beyond the 1 minute meditation session
At this point, you’re either nicely settled into the 1 minute meditations and feeling like you could take on more time because the sessions are too short, or you find yourself wondering when the timer will go off. There are a couple of different choices you could make here, all of which are equally valid:
If you feel ready for more time, increment the session length. Calm’s timer intervals go 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 minutes (…etc. Calm also does an 8 hour timed meditation that I suspect is more for sleep than for actual meditation). Consider this the “check-in” method. Doesn’t matter if you managed to have a focused session or you find yourself ten million miles away when the bell chimes. I have seen comments like “It’s called meditation _practice_, not meditation perfect” which is kind of a dad joke but also true.
If you keep thinking “are we done yet?” try replacing the timer with a stopwatch. That is, instead of having something count down from an arbitrary period of time, have it count up–and give yourself permission to finish your session when you feel done. This was a trick I used to get myself to sit for my first sessions that were longer than 10 minutes. It is also useful because it lets you get a feel for what the best sessions could be like, when you get into the flow of returning to the breath and aren’t worrying about when the timer will go off.
Try the stopwatch, but with intermediary chimes. Calm has an “open ended meditation” feature that lets you choose intervals for a bell to chime. The intervals are useful reminders to check in on where you are–are you watching your breath? (In my case, hardly ever–and the chimes are a cue for me to get back on track.) However, Calm’s intervals are set at 2 minute lengths. If 2 minutes is too long, Spotify (free!) has an album that does 10 minute sessions in shorter intervals:
.
Troubleshooting your meditation session:
Posture: Classical meditation has the practitioner sitting cross-legged, often on a pillow. If you can do that, great! If you can’t, great! You can also meditate while sitting in a normal chair, which helps decrease the likelihood that you’ll finish your meditation session and realize that your feet have fallen asleep. If you have terrible posture and sitting for meditation causes you stress, try lying down and doing your session that way! (I usually assume the corpse pose from yoga: feet relaxed apart from each other, hands a little ways out from the body with palms facing skyward, chin relaxed but lifted for easy breathing.)
Falling Asleep: Sometimes you might drift off while sitting quietly. If it’s chronic sleep deprivation, consider whether or not your time might be better spent sleeping rather than meditating. If you choose to tackle meditation, ramp up your sitting times slowly, or rely on the frequency bells as an outside reminder to bring your attention back to your breath.
It happens to the best of us. Fanart by Promsien (deviantArt)
All the monkeys in the brain: normal. Carry on as before: note that there are monkeys, then refocus on the breath.
A word on habit-building:
These days I meditate much the same way I drink water: usually at the beginning and end of the day, plus when I feel like I need to. To incorporate a regular meditation session into your routine, it’s easiest to schedule it before or after something you already do regularly–after sitting up in bed, before you log on to your computer, or after a meal. Don’t forget to reward yourself afterwards! Perhaps by checking off your “Meditation” Daily in Habitica?
What are your strategies for making meditation work for you? We’d love to hear them!
It’s Wiki Wednesday! Once a month we highlight a helpful post fromthe Wiki with tips about productivity, wellness, and optimizing your use of Habitica!
In last month’s edition of Wiki Wednesday we looked at some Sample Dailies to help you decide what to put in this important column! Now that you’ve set up your Habits and Dailies, you might be thinking about what kinds of tasks are good candidates for your To-Do column. The Wiki Scribes have helpful information and examples to inspire you as you add To-Do’s to your list!
Players may find it useful to add one-time tasks to their To-Dos. Like a normal To-Do list, items added here are meant to be taken care of, marked off, and forgotten about. To-Dos can be used as a quick way to make notes about tasks that need to be taken care of when on the go, or make sure that certain steps in a project are done.
Want to know more? Head over to the wiki to check out the full article!
In last month’s Use Case Spotlight we learned all about different ways that folks in the community make time for Relaxing Hobbies. This month, we’re further exploring how Habiticans make time specifically for creative hobbies! Here are some great tips, tricks, and ideas for using Habitica to set (and maintain!) new tasks and goals related to Arts and Crafts. These come from your fellow players in the Use Case Spotlights Guild!
kaoru coati starts us off with a great way to remember great project ideas as you come up with them:
Whenever I get an idea for something to make I make a To-Do for it right away, including a checklist with whatever sub-steps that come to mind at the time. That way ideas don’t escape me, plus having the To-Dos there reminds me to make time for crafting (they are all grouped under a tag of course). I can always delete or edit a To-Do if I change my mind about a project.
NR Nazario uses To-Dos and Habits to create comics!
My entry into ART & CRAFTS is making Comics. I have use two methods in Habitica to do so. On the first method, I divide the seven discrete tasks of my process (Script – Sketch – Pencil – Ink – Color – Letter – Publish) into seven separate to-do items. This method emphasized PROCESS and the progress towards getting a published comic episode (which is what I called each page) The second method, emphasized the achievement of the final result rather than working towards it, was to have a large task named after the episode number (101, for example) and then a checklist containing the 7 subtasks inside. Outside of those options, I have a + habit for working on the comic for 1 pomodoro which can be checked for each pomodoro you work and a daily set to work on the comic for at least the first pomodoro.
Memry, the silver pirate uses Challenges to tie subscriber gems to projects as an extra incentive!!
I create challenges. I created a private guild, and there I create challenges for every major (and minor) project. [For] making Christmas ornaments I create a challenge that includes every step from selecting what type of ornament I want to make to the moment I distribute them to the family. I am a subscriber, so I tie all my gems up in my challenges. I can’t spend them until I earn them – by finishing things! Double bonus!
Mikachu posted an excellent discussion of their art process and how it’s managed through Tasks. An excerpt is given here, but if you’d like to read the full post, head over to the Use Case Spotlights Guild and find it in the chat!
As a self-employed artist, using Habitica to track my art tasks is essential to my daily productivity and ultimately the success of my career. …[One] To-Do I’m actively pursuing is actually a set of twelve, one for each month, and is not only a part of my career pursuits, it’s my 2017 New Year’s Goal. My goal is to create a new, complete, and properly-done illustration every month. To help me accomplish this, I created a To-Do for each month simply titled “[Month] Illustration” and gave them due dates that correspond to the last day of the named month. To keep myself from spending too much time in this planning stage (as opposed to creating the works) I have only created lists for the To-Dos as each month has arrived.
There were so many helpful and exciting tips we couldn’t feature them all here! You can see them all and join in the discussion in the Use Case Spotlights Guild– one of your ideas could be featured next month! Look for an announcement of next month’s theme from Bailey soon.
Also, if you missed it you may want to take a look at our most recent Guild Spotlight, which showcases groups dedicated to Relaxing Hobbies- some of the featured groups offer discussions and Challenges you may find helpful as you work on finding time for fun and relaxing activities in your life.
Habiticans are known for their productivity, but an important part of staying productive is taking time to relax and do the things you enjoy! In this month’s Spotlight we’re focusing on some Guilds where Habiticans talk about what they do for fun and how they make time for fun.
Are you a movie lover? A television connoisseur? This Guild is a great place to meet other Habiticans who are into TV and Movies! There’s a lively discussion in the Guild chat, and several running Challenges including a Movie of the Week! Gamers Union:https://habitica.com/#/options/groups/guilds/b767f59d-3743-462f-bd2d-9fe5390ddf53
This Guild is for players of all kinds of games, from tabletop to video games and beyond. They have a great chat filled with discussions of favorite games and recommendations for new ones to check out. Gamers Union also has a number of Challenges to help you discover new games on all kinds of platforms — you might even find a new favorite!
Whether you’re a Dungeon Master or totally new to the world of tabletop gaming, Tabletop Gamers is a great place to learn more, find games, and talk to others who share your enthusiasm! Featured Challenges in this Guild include Challenges based around games, but also a Dungeons and Dailies Challenge that helps you turn your Habitica Tasks page into your own tabletop-style adventure!
These Guilds and many others are here to help you make time for fun! And if you’re looking for more advice on managing your relaxing hobbies, be sure to read this month’s Use Case Spotlight, featuring tips and tricks from fellow Habiticans!
