I’m a Sucker for RPGs…

I was intending to include this in an Awesome Things Volume, but, after a few days of playing around with it, I’ve decided to give HabitRPG it’s own post. What is HabitRPG? Besides the cleverest goal tracking program in the entire world? …Well, that basically sums it up, but let me elaborate.

I was fortunate enough to stumble across Katie‘s blog when she posted about it recently, and decided to check it out. At first, the concept seemed a little too far out there to reel me in, but I set up a profile anyway, put in my daily goals, my daily habits (both ones I want to do more as well as those I need to do less), and a few other bigger “To Do” things, all the while thinking, “I’ll never keep up with this. Goal trackers never work for me. This is going to get forgotten by the second day.”

By the second day, I was in love. Not only is it a really fun concept, but I find myself eager to click the things I’ve accomplished for the day and earn experience points and reluctant to have to force myself to click the bad habits I have listed and lose precious hit points. It’s shockingly effective until I really sat back and thought about why I’ve taken to it so much, and I realize it’s not just the Role-Playing Game aspect of it, but rather that it encapsulates everything about RPGs that I find addicting: LEVELING UP.

I’m what they call a “grinder” when I play video games. I like the grind of encountering baddies and kicking their butts until I level up, go home and rest, and then head back out and do it some more until I’m 210% prepared to move on to the next step. And that’s basically what HabitRPG is, grinding, but instead of just being able to access these cool new items and such-and-such level or earning enough gold to do this, there are also real life consequences and benefits and progression.

Will I eventually get bored with HabitRPG? Yeah, probably. But, for right now, it’s quite possibly the best tool I’ve come across to track my productivity, at a time when I really need to be as productive as possible.

What do you think? Does HabitRPG sound like something you could get some use out of? Do you use something else to track your productivity? I know Lauralynn Elliott uses a Supernatural inspired spreadsheet to track her word count. What helps you keep on track with your goals and progress?

See, and one of my Daily goals on HabitRPG is to make a blog post, so, excuse me while I go get some more of those delicious experience points!