How do you handle gamification apps when your schedule is flexible?
Like I can get up any time between 6 and 7:30 AM and seeing the alarms from habitica is making me stress and anxious because I’m feeling like a failure. And in the end I don’t do any of the tasks.
Any advice?
i’m not 100% sure what kind of app you mean, but it sounds like the issue is not that you are failing the app, and rather that the app is failing you and isn’t adressing your particular needs?
it could be an amazing app for some people but if it doesn’t work for you, then bin it and try something new or msybe just try a different version of the same thing if you mostly like it
like i said though, i don’t really know what the app is, ive never found an app that helps with my adhd, but thats just me, so feel free to completely ignore my ignorance on this particular subject 
ps your not a failure, you just have adhd and that makes you pretty awsome in my book 
Habitica is a gamification app that helps you to develop habits using it as experience to lvl up a rpg character.
@MFrancisca , it depends on what you want and need to do about habits.
If you like to live with a flexible schedule, and it’s not a problem with the rest of your lifestyle, then changing to a fixed schedule would seem to only cause you angst.
One method for creating new habits which is often successful is to use old habits as a cue. For instance, when I started taking vitamins, I took them when I had breakfast. I always have breakfast, but on weekends I do so at a much later time than on weekdays. When I started taking ADHD meds, I tied that to taking my vitamins. That’s how I formed a new habit just this year.
…now if I can only get in the habit of getting out of bed earlier. (I’m always getting out the door late!)
Actually one of the things I’m trying to do is get a bit stricter with my time, so I can have time to relax and myself. I don’t want to be iron tight, just a lit less flexible so in a good day I can craft a bit and not feel guilty because I did not finish all I had for the day.
I don’t like apps like Habitica or “gamification”. They punish you for your irregularity and that has a negative effect. I have thought of writing my own app where you don’t get punished for missing a day and it encourages you in other ways. For instance it should show you that you did exercise 5 days out of 7 and so on. I think a lot can be done but it is not a simple project so I don’t know if I will get around to it.
One thing you can try is just record your habits by creating a habit tracker page in bullet journal or a spreadsheet. Different color for each habit. Then you can see what you did over the last few days/weeks/months.
I can see your point and there are situations where you just can’t be regular. For example one of my habits is exercise, but I’m sick so I either take a punishment for something I can’t do, or a cheat the system which is not the point of the system.
However a reward system has been what gives me better results so far. I’ve tried journaling but I forget to write on it…
@khagen , good ideas for a habit tracker!
@MFrancisca , a reward-only system instead of a punishment-based system is also a good idea!
@MFrancisca
Has the app worked for you since your last post? Have you found something else?
Just curious. I need to keep myself on track and speaking I gotta get going.
@roojem It worked… until I fell sick and could not do a bunch of my habits and dailies. The app does not allow you to pause so my character “died” a lot of times and all my items were super red and it became overwhelming to try to get everything on track again.
In the end I just stopped using it because it became too stressful.
First of all, I hope you are feeling better and are on the mend.
I feel sad that your character died that seems like something out of a Black Mirror episode. Haha
I would be sad and stressed too.
I’m not even sure having a redesign of the app would fix it. Like who wants to resuscitate a character.
I’m sure there is something out there. I find it hard to read my own handing writing so pen and paper is not a viable option for me.
My house is messy but once it’s clean or sections of it I might take pictures to see if so I have a reference to maintain. Like to help with memory. A visual aide or something and video. Yeah video.
Record myself giving myself a list with the environment around me. Hmm I’m going to try it.
Let me know if you find any hacks that work for you.
I will keep you posted.
I’ve been using the Fabulous app, paid subscription ($60 < USD pa < $70 can’t remember, go figure?) for about 3 weeks. Basically since Jessica shilled it on the channel, you know the one that brought us all here.
It does gamefy (as in don’t break the chain style) but also it insists you start small. I’ve even had a warning come up to ask if I was sure I wanted to add another habbit as I might be trying to introduce too much. edit 1: Oh, and it only lets you do one challenge at a time, so that side quests become hard to innitiate and you have to pause the journey you’re on, so I’m now on track to finish the foundation journeys and then I’ll get to doing the decluttering/weight loss etc. journeys and side quests.
I does not punish for non completion and the paid version has spoken coaching 3 times a day, once in the morning, once to hrm (clears throat) for Focus and once at night. A recent one was about “the tiger and the strawberry” (google it it’s an ancient parable).
if you read the reviews many say it’s either hard to navigate, or the free version is a bit light. Can’t say, for me, at the current time, with what feels like hanging to a tree root over the edge of a cliff with a tiger above me and the abbyss below … oh that got dark all of a sudden … well it’s getting me to at least feel some peace in the mind storm.
Thank you all for your patience, hang in there (both metaphorically and literally)
@lui
I hate to sound cliché hang in there?
Maybe it’s a Tiger Lily? I’m rooting for you!
Also the abyss gets a bad rap. It’s just the doorway to oblivion.
I don’t remember oblivion but have sense that it was peaceful.
Your mind is beautiful.
Thank you for you!
I’m familiar with the parable of “the tiger and the strawberry” ( 
“Mmm…how sweet.”) As you can tell from my recent posts, I’m familiar with the feeling that I’m hanging from the tree root, feeling like there’s danger above and below.
Another analogy that has come to mind in almost every struggle I’ve gone through in my adult life is: “When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot in it, and hold on for dear life!”
)The meaning I get from the parable of “the tiger and the strawberry” is that no matter how bad your circumstances are, you can find something to appreciate, there is still something of value (beauty, sweetness, sustenance) that life has for you.
I’m trying to get started on daily habits (for the umpeenth, or maybe umptieth time). I know that I need to start simply, and I’m following a self-improvement concept I learned about in recent months called PIES. (It’s an acronym for: Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, & Spiritual … P.I.E.S. — As taught in this model, “Spiritual” does not refer to a specific faith, but to “your own beliefs and values”, whether they be along the lines of a specific faith, or not.)
These were taught to me as “the four areas of attraction”. Whether or not my wife ends up attracted to me again, I know that I can keep working on myself, become a better person today than I was yesterday … even if just by a tiny bit.
I have a habit tracking app, but I haven’t used it in months. I’m trying to get started using a daily log, inspired by the Bullet Journal, in a hardbound paper journal.
Hi JD,
from what I can glean from the lens of your forum post there’s a lot you can value.
I’m hastiliy writing this as we’ve had a mishap with our chickens that I am now tasked to scrape clean a large area of the pen and … but I write to you to share from my morning coaching session with Fabulous app in bullet form (and I write it here as much for myself as in the hope that it might help you, nothing is ever guarateed):
I thank you for you patience, gtg now.
On the matter of habits: the app I’m using now it had me just making sure I was drinking water every morning for three mornings in a row, with the only additional activity being to prepare a bottle or glass by the bedside the night before no more than that.
It took 14 days to finish the first foundation journey which included the water drinking, the exercise and the eating of good great breakfast. Journey two seems to be about one of my favourite activities: better sleep.
Take care out there, as Cat Stevens said ‘its a wide world’ (as best as I can recall it)
Thank you @lui . I know that I have been optimistic at some times in my life and pessimistic at others. Throughout my life, whether in good times or in bad, I’ve generally seen humanity in a positive light, and I’ve looked for what I can learn from each life experience.
I have a great deal of appreciation for Dr. Martin Seligman, the father of Positive Psychology. Such work by him and others lends a scientific basis to my personal beliefs (informed by my upbringing, my focus on the positives in Bible study, and my careful choices in reading & other media).
I want to leave this world better when I die than how it would have turned out had I never been born. (Probably a tall order, but it’s how I’ve felt since my youth.) It helps to feed my mind and heart on the affirming work of others, it makes me feel like I’m on a team of like-minded people.