Habitica is a task management/encouragement site where users can keep track of habits and tasks, earn gold by completing them (or lose HP for not getting them done), and use that gold to dress adorable pixel avatars in medieval garb. It’s an RPG-themed to-do list app, and I absolutely love it.

When I gave the app permission to share my latest milestone – reaching level 25 – on Twitter, I got a few curious responses. But honestly, who wouldn’t be intrigued by cute sword-wielding pixels paired with task management? I thought it might be fun to talk about how I utilize the service (which is free!) as a blogger to keep me organized and motivated.

I won’t be covering the use of the inventory, quest, or other gaming portions of Habitica. For that information, I highly recommend the Habitica Wiki.

Please note that while I use curse words throughout this guide (as per my style), Habitica is an all-ages environment (except in private Guilds.) I keep my sexy potty mouth here on the blog, and if you join, so should you (unless you make a private Guild for, like, idk, cussin’ and sextin’.)

What the fuck am I doing, like ever

Buster works a traditional work week (Monday through Friday) so I’m left to struggle with executive function on my own on weekdays. This can make daily tasks like showering and fixing lunch pretty difficult, because I either forget I need to do it or I have trouble getting myself to initiate it. Having an established to-do list of everyday tasks helps, because even if I don’t always get to them in a timely manner, I have something that reminds me those needs even exist.

Does it always work for me? No. Executive dysfunction is a bastard. But on days where functioning is possible with some additional gentle guidance, Habitica is a great ally.

But, we’re here to talk about blogging. Mostly.

Habitica has become core to my recent push to get my blogging organized. There are things I’m striving to do every day to reach my goals, as well as routines I’m trying to cultivate to make blog upkeep and growth both easier and more natural.

Finishing this review, updating that spreadsheet, answering emails from last week (er, month), editing in affiliate links – there’s so much to be done, it can get overwhelming, especially with the fried egg I have for a brain. Breaking blogging down to a set of clickable to-dos took some puzzling, and I’m definitely still tweaking my system, but I figured why not share what’s worked out for me so far to illustrate Habitica’s capabilities.

Sorting this shit out

My favorite thing about Habitica is the ability to organize your labor. You can assign your tasks to one of three categories, appoint a difficulty level (I have Emails rated four stars because they terrify me), tag them according to need (such as Work or Wellness) or time (like Morning or Evening), and set their frequency. And if all the customization is too daunting, you can skip everything besides choosing which category to add the task to!

Habitica’s three categories are Habits, Dailies, and To-Dos. These titles are a tad misleading, as they imply certain restrictions about their respective lists. Dailies don’t have to be everydaylies, Habits can literally be any repeatable task, and To-Dos is just a one-and-done checklist.

To best utilize Habitica’s three task categories, I broke all my blogging work down and grouped it as follows:

• Dailies: Things that should be done routinely (and for me, only Monday through Friday.) This is stuff like writing and/or editing, answering emails and social media correspondence, keeping my Buffer queue going, etc.

I’ve tried not to be hyper-specific or all-encompassing in my blog-related Dailies even though it’s tempting. I’ve set realistic goals for myself so I don’t get overwhelmed and give up before I start. Sectioning my dedicated blog post time (which includes writing, editing, and prepping for publishing with affiliate links, etc) into hourly chunks has made my work easier to conceptualize and tackle! It also instills a sense of accomplishment as each hour passes and I get to check it off on my list.

I have several Dailies besides blog work, like my daily functioning necessities (shower, meals, etc) and break activities (Pokemon Go, listening to uplifting music) which I use to remind myself I’m a human being with needs, and subsequently reward myself for acknowledging that and doing something about it.

• Habits: Tasks that aren’t done daily or are done multiple times in a day. Such activities include tweeting, taking product pictures, updating spreadsheets, reading new posts from fellow bloggers, etc.

I’d love to try doing some of this stuff every day, but it’s not realistic, and I feel more positively about it when it’s counted as an “extra” thing I did today rather than something I failed to do yesterday. Like Dailies, I try to keep my Habits non-specific so my list isn’t cluttered; for example, Social Media Tidying means anything from clearing my inbox to fixing myself a new header, and Learn Something New can be tackling a new blogging thing I didn’t already do or doing research for an upcoming piece.

• To-Dos: Projects/chores pending full completion (checking them off makes them disappear, To-Dos are the only ones that do so.) Examples of these are upcoming reviews and articles, commissioned work, organizational overhauls, etc.

The fact that To-Dos are separate from both Dailies and Habits is a source of great joy for me. Having a space to list the major things I’m working on helps keep me focused on blog momentum. I also tend to work on multiple reviews and articles at once, so having a list at my fingertips is also helpful for when I want to work on something else. I find this list more useful to keep track of projects that take time, but it can also be utilized as a daily to-do list instead since the tasks vanish after you click them. You can start with a new list tomorrow!

Let’s get really goddamn specific

As I said previously, you can absolutely get away with just inputting your tasks and leaving it at that. But there are advantages to taking time to tailor your lists, if you ever get bored or stuck in the thralls of procrastinating something else.

Difficulty: Setting the difficulty of each task is rewarding in a very literal sense. Things rated harder will give you bigger gold rewards when you check them off. Want to buy that badass shield? Mark your omg-I-hate-this chores accordingly, and watch the gold flow as you get shit done.

Weekly: In the Dailies category, if you set a task to weekly (under Repeat Every), you’re able to uncheck days where the task isn’t applicable. All of my Dailies are set to Monday through Friday only, so I don’t lose health on the weekends from not completing them.

Tags: You can mark tasks according to subject and time of day. Breakfast is a Health/Wellness need for Morning completion, in case you need the reminder.

Positive/Negative: Habits are given a negative option by default, to click if you fail or forget. I edit each one and turn it off because I don’t need that kind of piss in my life.

Other ways to organize:

• You can drag and drop tasks to rearrange them. This means you can reorder your lists to better reflect task urgency or intended completion order.
• In settings, you can set your Dailies to the Due tab. This means only your unchecked tasks are visible, unless you switch back to the All tab or it’s a new day. This helps keep visual clutter down, especially on the app.
• You can also change what time your day starts in settings. Mine starts at like noon, but I’ve set it to 6 A.M. to feel cool. This is useful if you work/sleep odd hours!

Holy fuck, that sweet dopamine

So why does Habitica work for me, when standard to-do lists in pen and paper don’t?

1. Habitica rewards you for your work by letting you indulge in every nerd’s favorite pastime: character customization. The avatars are delightfully retro, themed around classic RPG classes like rogues, mages, and warriors, and there are plenty of weapons and creature companions to sweeten the deal. You can tailor these to improve your character’s efficiency in quests and boss fights, but I don’t even use that part of the site! Dress up is plenty of fun for me.

2. I can access it on my laptop or on my phone with the app. This means I pretty much always have it right at my fingertips, which makes referencing or updating it super fucking easy. I lose track of written lists and bullet journals.

3. I also get distracted and distressed over written lists/journals. My handwriting is sloppy, I’m never sure how to structure my lists, and I spend too much time fixating on the materials I’m using.

4. The three list categories have helped me keep my shit organized. At a glance, I’m reminded of everything I need or want to get done, and when I click off complete tasks, they feel genuinely completed in a way that only games can reinforce.

5. If I want, I can join guides and participate in challenges. I’m not big on support networks (socializing is too strenuous for me), but if that’s your thing, there are hundreds of preexisting guilds with chatty members and ongoing challenges to further push you towards your goals!

6. I’m able to see my accomplishments through Streak Counters (the numbers on tasks that indicate how many days you’ve been consistent), Achievements (gold badges awarded for things like perfect days), and my avatar’s continual rise towards stylishness.

7. This one is just because I’m a happy autistic weirdo, but… There are few sound effects I love more than Habitica’s drum-like completion tone for Habits, or the jangle that accompanies the acquiring of gold. I will literally wait to check things off if I can’t have my volume on, just because I find the sounds so stimmy.

Take it easy, bitch, you’ve got this

I have a lot of bad days, where getting out of bed just isn’t going to happen. Insomina-related exhaustion, autistic burnout, depression, post-socializing recovery – I try not to be too hard on myself for needing time, even though I need kind’ve a lot. Some people need a lot of time! Your pace is valid! Stop giving yourself such a hard fucking time about it, Me!

For this reason, my absolute favorite aspect of Habitica is The Tavern. Under Guilds, you can access a Tavern where your avatar can get some rest – but so can real life you, because your Dailies are put on hold and you don’t lose HP or streak numbers. To reinforce that you’re taking some down time, your avatar is shown snoozing away.

The Tavern is… so pleasantly affirming. You can use it during real life vacations or days off, but I love checking my avatar into the inn when I find myself having one of my aforementioned bad days. Making the conscious decision to put myself in the Tavern is a reminder that I’m not failing to be productive – I’m letting myself rest.

And that, I think, is the best motivator of them all.

Like my work and have some spare change? Consider buying me a coffee!