Habitican Shared Task Lists

Illustration by Vampitch

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!

It can be really useful to know how other people use Habitica, especially when you’re just starting out. How do people distinguish between Dailies and Habits? What do you need to do every day? The Shared Task Lists page can help with those burning questions, for newbies and veterans alike.

Each Habitican develops their own unique way of setting up their tasks in Habitica, but there is always curiosity about what others have on their lists. This page allows Habiticans to share some of their tasks with others. Since the Habitica community is global and has users from all ages and backgrounds, seeing shared tasks can be very enlightening and educational for all. Feel free to add your own tasks to this page!

Shopping around for the right new Dailies to make your task list complete? Check out the full article here!

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Staff Spotlight: Sara AKA Piyo

Welcome to the Staff Spotlight Series, where we interview members of the Habitica Team! Today we’re chatting with Sara, also known as Piyo. Sara wears a lot of hats around Habitica, but is best known for her design work on the mobile apps!

Sara, how did you get involved with Habitica?

I came about Habitica in a rather roundabout way! My friend linked me to a social media post from the Habitica accounts seeking a mobile designer. I thought, “Hey, thats me! Gamified tasks sounds neat, I should check this out.” I was about 2 years out of college at the time and had worked on gamified educational tools as my thesis, so an opportunity to work on a gamification product for work sounded amazing. So in the end, I actually started using Habitica at the same time I applied to work for them!

What’s your proudest contribution to Habitica?

Probably the giant rebrand endeavor, including drawing the beloved Melior logo. It was the first thing I did even though I was brought on to work on the mobile apps. The great renaming was already in the works and I felt that the Habitica brand could become something really special. So I proposed we start with a rebrand that we could then apply the the mobile apps. This was so long ago, there was no official native android app yet! I drew probably 50+ logo concepts then narrowed it down to a few directions with the help of Lemoness and redphoenix, until we landed on the gryphon. However, we didn’t just want any gryphon, we wanted something that synthesized the mood and spirit of Habitica. It was pretty late in the process when I turned the tail tuft into a pixel graphic, but that was the final detail that sealed the deal and brought you the logo you see today.

What are your secret superpowers?

I consider myself a pro at laying on my couch to do the majority of my work. Most people work at desks or at least sitting up. But I take the opposite approach of the standing desk movement and choose to lay on my side for the work day. All of my best work is done laying down, preferably in a onesie. I’m convinced I must have a super-human spine since it’s just fine with this.

What are your secret weaknesses?
‘Buy 1 Get 1’ sales. I like to think that I’m a semi-frugal person in most areas, but these get me every time. Look, I don’t *need* two cakes (I probably didn’t even need the first one), but if I get one free for buying one… there’s no way I’m not taking home a free cake.

What are your favorite Habitican pets/mounts?

I really like the phoenix and baby gryphon pet. I just think they’re neat.

What are some things you’re tracking in Habitica?

I like tracking things that are reoccurring on different schedules and are hard to keep track of, like watering my plants or what days to do different parts of my skincare routine. Dailies are my jam, but I spend all my time in the Inn because I personally don’t like being punished for missing things, just rewarded for doing them. (Also because it made my glasses-wearing character look like they were wearing sweet sunglasses when sleeping before I got actual sunglasses to equip).

What do you like to do in your free time?

I love playing games, watching twitch, cooking, and baking! Browsing food blogs is a guilty pleasure of mine, and I’ll watch any baking competition show you throw in front of me. I’ve watched so much Chopped that I can convincingly take random ingredients and come up with a dish idea from them.

What are your top Habitica tips and tricks?

Don’t be afraid to use the Inn! And try clearing out your task board every now and then to give yourself a fresh start. Life changes, so your tasks and goals do too. Making sure the tasks you track stay relevant has helped me a lot.

Where do you like to hang out in Habitica?

I don’t speak too much, but I often scroll through Tavern to see what people are saying. I look and gauge what questions people have to figure out where they’re getting confused. Then I take that and think about how we might be able to prevent that confusion with slight improvements to their experience. Its a nice, casual, direct line to some feedback.

Want to learn more about the people who make Habitica? Check out our other posts in this series:

Spotlight on Vicky AKA Redphoenix
Spotlight on Leslie AKA Lemoness
Spotlight on Sabe AKA SabreCat

Spotlight on Matteo AKA Paglias
Spotlight on Phillip AKA viirus

Spotlight on Beth AKA Beffymaroo

Use Case Spotlight: Sleep and Rest

Illustration by Hachiseiko

Habiticans! Are you remembering to keep time in your busy busy schedules for a little rest and recuperation? This month’s Use Case Spotlight is all about that and how to make it part of your Habitica set-up. You can’t be productive if you don’t also have adequate rest, so it’s really important that you remember to take care of that side of your life as well.

User nitronova starts us off with their great idea for a customized Habitica experience: their very own sub-class!

Hi, Habitica. I am someone who struggles with doing daily tasks due to depression. I’m in love with stealth games but also enjoy healing myself and others. What I decided to do was employ the use of the Fix Character Values to give myself a sub-class that I call the “Street Doctor!”

[…]

The use case I want to spotlight is the “Shadowstep” power. Sometimes, I have to check into the tavern to recover. This causes me to lose my streak and miss my dailies for yesterday. To help motivate me to take care of those responsibilities when I do recover, I give myself a reward in gold for completing them the next day. It’s themed around darting into the shadows and delivering a stealthy hit to my tasks and I love the imagery as I’m doing things like my weekly laundry. This way, I stay on top of my chores and self-care while thinking of my self-care as an opportunity or a superpower, rather than a cost or a burden. To balance all the additional gold-earning powers I have, I use the Fix Character Values power to make my healing powers more costly in terms of mana or even my own HP. It feels riskier, which makes me more invested in sticking to the game.

Zelah Meyer has a simpler set-up reminding them to get to bed on time (with appropriate punishments and rewards)!

Regarding the ‘Healthy Habits for Sleep and Rest’ – I have a positive/negative habit for whether I was in bed by my target time the previous night. I try to be in bed by 11:30pm if I have to get up early the next day & Midnight if I have a lie-in. I click either the + or the – for whether or not I made it, and add extra clicks for every half hour that I was either early or late to bed!

Shutzie27 has a nice idea for using Habitica as part of their sleep hygiene routine:

So for me, sleep hygiene is its own category under Habits. Part of the routine is “tucking in” my avatar (I switch to a night background and sleepwear, except during the Fall Solstice, when she gets into costume) which signals the end of my screen time for the day, so I actually tick the habits first thing in the morning when I wake up my avatar.

There are other suggestions in the guild, and plenty more opportunities to share your own experiences! Check out the Use Case Spotlights Guild to add your input, and if you share something for the next topic, you might even be featured in next month’s post! There’s also a Guild Spotlight to help you look for further ideas on how to take care of yourself.

Taking a Break: Guild Spotlight

Illustration by Hachiseiko

Habitica is often all about productivity and completing just one more task, but there’s an important place for a healthy lifestyle as well, and that includes taking a break when you need it! Here are a selection of Guilds that just might help you with that.

Early to Bed and Early to Rise: This guild focuses on all aspects of sleep hygiene, and hosts challenges to help you incorporate healthy sleep into your routine. Check out the discussion in the Guild too!

Live Life to the Fullest With Mindfulness: This guild is all about using mindfulness to enhance your daily life, with all kinds of impact on healthy sleep, getting a break from the daily grind, and improving your mood overall.

Be Kind to Yourself Guild: Sleep is important, but it isn’t the only way to take a break from the daily grind. The Be Kind To Yourself Guild is all about self-care and ensuring you stay healthy in everything you do.

Don’t forget, there’s also a Use Case Spotlight post to tell you about how other users incorporate rest and sleep into their Habitica schedules!

The Mage’s Tower

Illustration by Vampitch

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!

The Mage’s Tower is the repository of all sorts of wisdom, from Class-specific guides to how to get the most out of Habitica to guides on how to make Habitica even harder. There are guides from many different contributors with all kinds of different approaches to setting up their tasks and taking on bosses. As the article itself says:

The Magi have always been mysterious folks. Centuries of research and attunement have revealed Tips & Tricks to cope in the world of Habitica.

This is a place to share your general productivity tips as well as to present ways you have customized your version of Habitica.

Check out the full page here to see all the different tips and tricks you can access!

Celebrating Your Achievements: Guild Spotlight

Illustration by Katy133

Sometimes, it’s easy to look at your To-Dos and think that they go on forever, especially when you get behind. It’s important to celebrate what you have done, and remember how awesome you are sometimes. Here are some guilds to help you do just that!

Achieve, Accomplish, Aspire: This guild is all about celebrating what you’ve done — even if it seems really small to you! They encourage you to include something you’ve achieved, something you accomplished, and something you want to achieve tomorrow, in each post.

Awesome Introverts: The theme here is a little more specific. A lot of Habiticans are introverted at heart and want to fade into the wallpaper — this Guild is all about celebrating overcoming that and doing the things that scare you!

Short Term Goal Accountability: This guild isn’t just about getting things done! It’s also a great place to remember to celebrate what you’ve done and share it with others. They definitely want to hear about it as you turn those To-Dos into Ta-Das.

Long Term Project Guild: If you’re working towards something big, this guild is the ideal place to make plans and announce your successes along the way.

In fact, most Guilds on Habitica are supportive places where you can celebrate your on-topic achievements. Want to share the intense workout you put yourself through, or the scarf you finished crocheting? Find the right Guild for that topic and jump in!

Don’t forget, there’s also a Use Case Spotlight on the same topic as this post!

Use Case Spotlight: Celebrate Yourself

Illustration by Katy133

Greetings, Habiticans! It’s time for another Use Case Spotlight. Last month we were talking about learning/supporting hands-on skills; this month, we’re looking at how people use Habitica to recognise and celebrate their achievements of all kinds!

NatalieOnIce starts us off with something perfectly in the spirit of Habitica:

I have a habit for “do something good”. It counts for all kinds of things – starting a carpool, watching my mother-in-law’s dog, contacting a politician about an issue I think is important. It helps me acknowledge my own actions when I’ve gone above and beyond just the daily life. I can’t expect others to always notice my actions, but I can make an effort to notice and reward myself just a little in game.

While Langerhan talks about how Parties can support each other in doing this!

I’m in a really supportive Party and we post about things we’ve achieved or things we’re working on. It’s really nice to be able to post about finishing a red to-do and get congratulations cards from people.

Ulla Hennig actually uses the Rewards column as a way to recognise progress made:

In order to celebrate myself I put up things in the rewards section which I’d like to have but not necessarily have to have: I am an artist in my free time, and I love to go to shops where I can buy art materials like new paints, pencils, paper and such. So “buy a bottle of acrylic ink” is something I put up. I just added “drink a cup of capuccino” because I enjoy not only the cup but also the atmosphere around it – a small cafeteria around the place where I am working.

There are a couple of other suggestions to check out in the Guild, and there’s still time to discuss it. What do you do to celebrate yourself? Check out the Use Case Spotlights Guild! Even better, if you join that Guild and share your experience once next month’s topic has been announced, you could be featured in next month’s post.

Don’t forget, there’s a Guild Spotlight as well, covering Guilds that can help you celebrate yourself as well!

Grand Gala

The official 2018 Fall Festival Class Outfits! Be sure to grab yours from your Rewards column 😉

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 a while, you’ve probably noticed some of the Grand Gala festivities. Four times a year, Habitica-wide events open up celebrating the season, with specially themed armor, transformation items and avatar customisation options!

The Grand Galas are the four seasonal events that happen each year in Habitica:

• Winter Wonderland
• Spring Fling
• Summer Splash
• Fall Festival

They usually start on or near the seasonal equinoxes or solstices and end on the last day of the following month, lasting about a month and a half total.

Check out the Wiki page to learn all about it, and follow the links to the events to learn more about what to expect from them.

Coming Soon: Unique Usernames

Illustration by Aries Faries

Hello Habiticans! We’re making a change to unique usernames! This change will be gradual and even though it won’t start rolling out until November, it’s still important to go to Settings to confirm your username as soon as you can.

Have questions about this new feature? Here are a few questions we’ve been hearing, and some answers!

What are usernames and how will they be used?

Unique usernames will allow you to invite friends to parties, Guilds, and Challenges more easily. Our team will also be able to use them to help you if you send a bug report. In the future, usernames will allow us to add the option to receive notifications if you are mentioned in chat.

What are Display Names and how will they be used?

Display names will be shown alongside your username in chat and in your Habitica profile. Your display name can have symbols and emojis if you desire, but they are not unique (people can have the same display name).

Where will my username appear? Will there be changes to my privacy?

Right now, you can find other players in Habitica by name in the following places: chats where they have recently posted, lists of Guild members, and lists of Challenge participants. These are the same places your username will appear – if you participate in those spaces. There are no changes to user privacy- your tasks and account information will remain private.

Can I change my username and display name?

Yes, you can change your username and display names in User>Settings. You can change them as many times as you like. However, if you change your username, your old username will become available for someone else to claim.

When will there be changes to chat? When can I start using my friends’ username to invite them to my party?

These changes will be rolled out gradually over the next couple of months. We want to give you, our community, time to adapt to changes and provide feedback that we can take into consideration throughout the roll-out process. We’ll be keeping you all informed as we go, so keep your eye out for news from Bailey!

Contributing to Habitica

Illustration by Leephon

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!

Did you know that Habitica is open source and that a lot of our art and coding are done by volunteers? We have a rich contributor community, with rewards available for those who keep it up: a nifty title, gems, and even contributor-exclusive items. There are all kinds of ways to contribute, and this month’s featured Wiki post is a great jumping off point for figuring out what you can do, and how to do it!

Everyday people with everyday lives devote their time and energy to creating and maintaining everything you see here on this wiki and at Habitica. Whether you want to earn the contributor rewards and titles or you just like the open-source model, we welcome you to contribute to the project. Please jump in where you feel comfortable contributing; there are a wide range of roles available.

Feel free to join the Aspiring Legends: Contributing to Habitica guild to talk about giving back!

Check out the full Wiki post here for all the details. If you’ve always wanted that colored username or the Hydra pet, this is your chance to jump on in!