Back in Habitica-land Matt Lichtenwalner 12/28 '25

Part of the header for habitica.com showing my userid and 'at a glance' stats. Also, my goofy ass avatar and pet wolf. Because OF COURSE I have a pet wolf. Don't pretend like you're surprised.

A while back, I joined Habitica. It's meant to be a 'gamification system' for your tasks and habits. It does this by turning your task lists / habits into goals for an RPG setting.

I don't think I get enough out of it if I am 'playing' by myself, but it has a number of social components built in to help with motivation / accountability.

Since Brad and I were talking about making a game of our tasks / to-do lists, I remembered Habitica and re-joined.

It's a little goofy / hokey, but if it helps us to stay on task...

The Pros:

  1. It's free and open source. There's an option to pay to an upgraded 'group' if you want to share specific tasks etc, which I find very appealing for Brad and I, but I'm going to hold off until we prove we can use it with any consistancy.
  2. It seems like a solid habit tracker / task management system. If you strip away the 'game' side of things, it handles a lot in a pretty simple / straightforward way. It's tempting to just use it and ignore the 'game' side of things.
  3. Breadth and Depth. This might be a subsection of number 2, but I like the way it breaks things down into Habits / Dailies / Tasks. They may be essentially the same (in some senses) but I like those as categories. What's more, I like the depth of information you can add to each, but aren't required to, if that's not your thing.

The Cons:

  1. I just wish there was a way to use other artwork than what they have built into the system. It's styled after JRPGs, and that's just really not my thing. This is really not a BIG deal since it's just 'look and feel', but as an illustrator, those goofy / cutesy little pixelated characters / items just bug me.
  2. Partly because of number 1, I'm going to have to manually set up a lot of 'rewards' for myself and possibly Brad since I really won't give a shit about earning a new suit of armor for my little avatar.

Anyway, I'm checking it out, and it seems worthwhile, and hell, it's that time of year where we all renew our promises to ourselves to do X,Y, and Z this year - for sure! And who knows, maybe this will help me do that. 🤞

ETA: If you decide to try it out, please feel free to 'friend me' or whatever. UserID in the screen cap at the top of this post. :)

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12/28 '25 8 Comments
Dude, if you promise to stick to it, I will totally use that app with you.
Lindsay Harris Friel
I don't know about PROMISE, but I'm really going to work at it. I'd say jump on - it's free, and available for Android, iPhone / iPad, and Web, so... everywhere. :)

ETA: Also, if you're looking for some info, this woman appears to have taken down here site, but has posted some interesting videos on how she uses it. I watched both here 2022 setup and her 2025 setup (which is this link):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOPHvnCM80U
Matt Lichtenwalner
Ok. I discovered that I joined years ago and forgot, so I re-set my password and now I’m figuring it out.
Lindsay Harris Friel
For creative endeavors, I mostly need someone other than myself to actually _want_ the thing, and maybe answer design questions along the way.
nerdsholmferret
Man, I _know_ this feeling so well. It’s super frustrating to me when people throw pithy phrases like “Do art for you!” at me. I appreciate the intent, but ‘art for me’ is not very motivating.

I’m very far from the most qualified in the world, but if I can ever help with design questions etc, PLEASE do not hesitate to ask. I _love_ to be helpful. :)
Matt Lichtenwalner
Re:goofy/hokey, embrace playfulness. It took me a long time to internalize that. So much of building good habits is tied up in shame (ie., “why can’t you just try harder?”) that we have to re-brand goofiness for ourselves. I load my to-do lists with stickers and rubber stamp images to color in so I feel good when I look at my list.

The habit tracker that I constantly see recommended is Finch. It’s so cute. I think it’s meant for kids with autism and/or ADHD but it’s recommended for adults. The only reason I mention it to you is that it doesn’t have pixelated art like Habitica.

It rewards you with stuff like in-game costumes and pretend pets, but it suggests rewarding habits, too, like “listen to soothing music before bed.”
Lindsay Harris Friel
Yeah. I hear you. Amusingly, while I have… issues with self esteem, the goofiness in this case, is external. I don’t love pixel art or anime or… well, their whole design aesthetic. I just need to get over myself and appreciate the tool for the value it has - not what I want it to be.

But on the ‘stickers’ front - That woman I recommended did mention something I’m planning to do: use emoticons heavily. It gives tasks / habits / etc a quick visual queue which seems SUPER useful.

I will check out Finch. Likely to stick with Habitica since Brad is arguably the most important ‘social accountability partner’, and he seems to have less problem with the aesthetic of that platform.

And yeah - I’m trying to come up with some good ‘rewards’ for us - both something we WANT (making it a valuable reward) and something that makes sense in context. It’s proving a fun / interesting challenge.

And speaking of challenges in the context of Habitica - I’m disappointed that Quests (which allow for communal tasks etc) require paying a subscription. I understand the need to make SOME money, so I don’t think it’s unreasonable, but I am trying to stick to my “prove you’re going to use it by using the basics consistently before buying any kind of upgrade / subscription” philosophy. So I’m testing out the Challenge function which seems like a ‘lite version’ of Quests.
Matt Lichtenwalner
I’m still struggling with setting stuff up in Habitica and I’m not sure why.

I’ll read their Help stuff.
Lindsay Harris Friel