# Tangible feedback allows for easier habit building [Habitica](https://habitica.com/) is an application which gamifies your life by turning your habits into video game missions. Basically, it makes the [[Habit-forming cycle]] very tangible by attaching immediate rewards or penalties to your tasks. You may also join groups inside the community, which adds social accountability. The creator of Habitica, lefnire, details in a blog post[^1] how he uses it and I found some of his recommendations useful: - [[In habit building, every action counts]]. - For simplicity's sake, a single habit (which lefnire calls CBT) can replace all others and act as your mindfulness check. Indeed, every time you want to indulge in some bad habit, recognising the craving is in itself a success, and indulging is a failure. Ideally, you should refrain from indulging, but it is possible to both succeed and fail, which is still better than a straight failure without any self-reflection. - Furthermore, seeing the CBT habit become red will be a very concrete sign that you are going easy on yourself and will serve as a stick to set you straight. Remember to [[Slow down your breathing to improve your willpower]]. - Rewards can be immensely powerful in helping you build good habits. Indeed, if you only focus on good habits, you may fall into the trap of perfectionism, leading to anxiety and burnout.. However, if you do not put a lid on your bad habits, you prevent yourself from achieving greater things. Habitica actually adds *balance* to your life, by having you *earn* each and every one of your pleasurable sins, eg eating dessert, playing video games or watching anime. - Habitica tasks change colors based on how successful you are: if a habit is blue, then it is solidly anchored in your life; if it is red, you tend to miss it often. You should focus on the red ones. First, it gives you more experience and gold to tackle the red habits. In addition, it is by implementing those habits that you will change your life the most, by venturing out of your blue comfort zone. lefnire even advocates *never* doing blue habits, which is a great Stoicism exercise. --- ## 📚 References [^1]: How Habitica's Creator Uses Habitica | OCDevel. <https://ocdevel.com/blog/20210108-how-to-use-habitica>.