Sample Habits

This page contains some examples of Habits to help you develop your own. Studies show that habits will take approximately 21 days to ingrain.^[1]

BusinessEdit

Business Habits revolve around a productive work environment, and a change here can help increase effectiveness at work.

Healthy HabitsEdit

These are generally considered to be part of a healthy lifestyle, and can be helpful if trying to drop an unhealthy habit.

HouseworkEdit

These habits offer rewards upon completing chores or other tasks around the house.

ProductivityEdit

Habits concerning general productivity. These can include certain methodologies that are outlined in this wiki.

EnvironmentEdit

To get in the habit of being "green", keep these Habits green or better.

Self-ImprovementEdit

Habits designed for general self-improvement.

StudyEdit

These are specifically designed for students.

HabiticaEdit

These are used to improve/change the way you use Habitica. Depending on how and when you want to schedule these tasks, they could alternatively be Dailies.

General TipsEdit

Habits are not easy things to make or break. In fact, research shows it can take anywhere from 20 to 30 days just to start changing a habit^[2], and from there it takes continued repetition to keep the habit firmly ingrained^[3]. To help with this, there are a multitude of habit-trackers so people can track habits that are being worked on, but Habitica goes to the added step of gamifying habits to help players find different types of motivation to continue working on the habits they want to form.

Naming your tasks is important to ensure that you can keep yourself accountable for reaching goals.

Not everything will be a Habit. If trying to decide whether to make something a Habit, a Daily, or a To-Do, keep this in mind:

1. Habits are actions that are performed daily, or even multiple times a day, in daily routine,
2. usually occur unconsciously, and
3. take time and effort to change.

If the task is something that should happen every day, certain days a week, or every X days, it should be a Daily. If the task only needs to happen once before it is done, or repeats rarely (e.g. once a year), it should be a To-Do. If the task is something that happens every day whether you want it to or not, it is most likely a Habit that can be changed. Take a look at the examples above for some ideas.

Other tips:

• Sometimes you'll find that a Habit should have different difficulties for the good (+) and the bad (-). One method is to average the two difficulties, and use that "median" difficulty for the Habit. For example, if the + has a Hard difficulty, and the - has a Trivial difficulty, you could set the Habit's difficulty to Medium.
• Another method to use when a Habit's + and - have different difficulties is to break the Habit into two: one that's a + only, and one that's a - only. For example, you may have a Habit you're really good about doing, but sometimes forget. Perhaps when you forget, it's a big problem (e.g. filling up your car with gas), or you really want to secure the Habit as a good one (ending instances where you fail to do the Habit). Then you could set the difficulty of the + to Trivial, while setting the difficulty of the - to Hard. This way you still get rewarded when you remember, but you will really feel it when you forget.
• Keep in mind that tasks' difficulty vary from user to user. Running a 5k might be Trivial to some, but Hard for others. Painting a picture could be Easy for an artist, but Hard for a nonartist.
• Instead of using difficulty as a gauge for how laborious a Habit is, you could use difficulty as a reward/punishment. For example, if you want to stop picking your lip, you could make the Habit Hard even though the act is arguably Trivial. This way, you get a sizable reward for not picking your lip and a harsh punishment for picking.

See AlsoEdit

• Habits - for general information about Habits and how to create them in Habitica
• Sample Dailies
• Sample To-Dos
• Sample Tags
• Sample Custom Rewards
• Naming Your Tasks
• Habitican Shared Task Lists
• The Library of Shared Lists

References

1. ↑ http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/form-a-habit.htm
2. ↑ http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/form-a-habit2.htm
3. ↑ http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2013/01/30/does-it-only-take-3-weeks-to-form-a-habit