Are you trying to build better habits? Would you like to make it fun?
There’s an app for that. More than one.
Building a Set of Habits
Habitica (formerly Habit RPG) turns your habit-building plan into a monster battle. The monsters come from your habits, daily responsibilities, and to do list.
Fight the monsters and you’ll level up, win special rewards, and earn cool swag that your character can use in future battles. If you don’t keep up, your character will weaken.
Habitica stands out from other habit gaming apps because you can compete against other players. You may find this interaction gives you more incentive to stick to your habits.
Work on a Particular Habit
You may just want to focus on one habit. The Mighty has issued a challenge to drink more water during the month of July. I have done a terrible job drinking water, so I gladly took the challenge.
The challenge post mentioned a free app called Plant Nanny, which gamifies drinking water. I’ve tried using a checklist, I’ve tried tracking in a food app, I’ve tried tracking on a habit app, so why not try something different?
Setup is easy – enter the size of your water glass, your weight, and whether you’re sedentary or active. Then the app calculates the amount of water you need each day. You then choose and name your plant. If you want, you can choose a different flowerpot.
When you drink a glass of water, just click and hold the cup icon on the screen to record it in the app.
The plant lets you know how you’re doing. If you’re drinking enough, you have a happy plant. If you fall behind, your sad plant will get sick and can die. Then you can bury your plant and start again.
If you keep drinking water, your plant will grow enough to be planted in the garden. Then you can harvest seeds to unlock higher level plants and pots. You’ll level up and earn achievements as you continue.
Want to work on a different habit? Other apps include Zombies, Run! (walking and running), Fitocracy (fitness and nutrition), MindBloom (mood), and SuperBetter (you choose the habit).
Explanation of Why Gaming Can Help You
Some studies have speculated that gaming can provide additional benefits to improve your chance to succeed. Healthy behaviors helps you reach your intrinsic goals that energize you. Gaming can provide you with extrinsic goals that provide external benefits. Combine the two and you’ve got satisfaction and rewards.
So, What Do I Think?
Novice players/habit formers beware – you won’t magically turn into a habit superhero. If you drank 2 glasses of water a day, you’re not going to suddenly drink 10 glasses just because you downloaded an app. If it were that easy, you wouldn’t need an app, would you?
Confession: my Habitica warrior lost all of her XP, and this nanny killed the plants in her care (RIP Phlegm and Lucifer).
If you’ve been working on a routine and are doing OK, then a game could help. It could be that boost you need to keep going. It could be a dose of fun that adds a smile to your day. If you’re a gamer, then it’s could be another game to add to your arsenal, but you could also be bored by these simple games.
Just don’t expect magic.
