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HabitRPG: A Quest for Productivity

This is for you gamers out there or people who are looking for a new way to encourage productivity. I happen to be both. This is not necessarily just an app, it is so much more! Similar to CARROTit makes productivity more into a game, which is brilliant (for me, at least). You level up in CARROT, but HabitRPG takes it to a whole different level.

It originated as just a website, but it seems more like a program or an online gameYou make an account with HabitRPG and make your “avatar” aka your character or “you.” We’re talking about old-school pixelated graphics. It has the old-time feel to it, I like it. After all, this is a free service (there’s a subscribe option to support the developers), and these people are putting their own time into it. Once you are all set up with your Level 1 character, you are guided through a little tutorial. This just explains the basic functions and whatnot for you to be able to “play.”

How do you level up? Well, by being productive, of course! Let’s move on to the most important aspect of the program: the tasks. This where the productivity and efficiency come in, alongside the fun and questing. In order to gain levels, to gain gold, or cool items, you have to get stuff done! There are three types of productivity: habits, dailies, and to-dos.

habitrpg tasks

I’m the character on the left, my brother, who is in my party is shown on the right

Habits are every day things, as you would expect habits to be. These are things you can tick off multiple times a day. You might have “drink water” or “eat junk food” (which would drain your hitpoints). Dailies are a once-a-day tick-off like “exercise” or “take vitamins.” And finally, to-dos is obviously a to-do list. Each can have different difficulties which gains you more or less experience, gold, and items.

Those of you familiar with MMORPGs know about dailies. In this program, if you don’t complete all your “dailies” (things you should be doing every day OR every certain day that you set), then you lose hitpoints in your character. Nobody likes losing health! It really motivates me and drives me to do all those daily tasks and set the bar higher and higher. I love it! And as you level up, more and more becomes available to you like pets, mounts, and other items like equipment to give you buffs. Just like a real RPG!

Equipment

Equipment

There’s also a big “Social” aspect to the game. You can join several guilds (some that I am in include “Health Nuts,” “Mastering Buddha,” and “Pet Owners”), create challenges (that other people can join and get the tasks and dailies specific to that challenge such as learning languages, meditating, and so forth), and start your own party (aka a group). Right now I’m in a party with my brother, who is the one who introduced me to this awesome program.

Finally there are Rewards (which you see on the “Tasks” page) which are basically things you “purchase” with the gold that you have earned. Rewards can range from whatever you want. There are some pre-set ones like equipment you can buy and such like shield, sword, etc. Then there are also ones you create. So on mine, you can see “1 hr video games,” “buy something for yourself,” “take a bath” and so forth. Make the price sensible so that it makes sense with the reward you are receiving. So if I really want to play those video games, I better get some stuff done!

I would love for more of you to join us! It’s also a great support network if not a fun and motivating way of being productive. My user is “hungryandfit” and I encourage you to join HabitRPG! I give it a huge thumbs up so far, it’s made me floss every day and we know that’s a win! And as always…stay hungry and fit!

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Techie Tuesday: CARROT To-Do App

So I’ve become obsessed with getting things done lately. Which is GREAT. Great for me, great for the house, great for everybody. But why? Well…I give all credit to my new to-do app, CARROTI constantly struggle to find apps that improve my productivity and organization, and still would like more, but as far as to-do apps go, CARROT really works for me.

CARROT is brilliant for gamers or competitive people because here’s the thing: it’s an AI to-do list with personality that gives you points for completing tasks. So I started at Level 1. I’m now at Level 41. Yeah, I’ve been going crazy. But at Level 1, I didn’t have many capabilities. Some people may be turned off by that, saying if I’m paying for an app, I should get all the capabilities right away before me! I totally hear you. But I’m okay with this because it actually improves my productivity. I want to complete more and more tasks so I get more and more upgrades. So at first, I couldn’t set reminders, now I can. I couldn’t rearrange my list, now I can. And so forth. Even though it holds back all it does until you gain levels, that is one of the biggest reasons you want to keep being productive.

My to-do

My to-do

Obviously, it’s very different from other to-do apps as it’s interactive. It gets mood swings. CARROT will be happy if you complete many tasks, but if you slack, CARROT will turn angry and turn all black and red and make me scared. It’s not always an upgrade when you level up, sometimes you get a KITTEN (yup) or sometimes he tells you a story. Or asks you to sacrifice bunnies for him. I think it’s a female, but I always change the gender.

All in all, CARROT has all the features other to-do apps have, but it makes you work for them so that you are improving your productivity. It makes getting things done fun because who doesn’t like leveling up? I think I may have found my to-do app, finally! Check it out here: http://www.meetcarrot.com/. Use this app to stay hungry and fit!

My cat, NBD

My cat, NBD

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