productivity – Tiana Feng

I’ve always been the type of person to keep busy. Even when I was watching a TV, I needed to be reading articles on the internet, drawing, learning how to code, blogging or whatever. I couldn’t justify simply doing the recreational thing without being busy with something I deemed “productive”. In my head I felt like I was wasting my life if I took that extra hour of sleep, nap, caught up on Youtube or even hang out with friends.

Ever since I got a full-time job these priorities changed. I still struggled with the need to “keep productive”, this time with more of a focus on reading a book or writing the blog posts that keep all my sites updated. I now have less time than ever to do any of those things and being able to prioritize has been a challenge.

However, I let myself turn-off the brain when I’m exhausted. An extra hour of sleep, hanging out with friends or letting myself relax and play video games does wonders for the amount of things I can get done the next day (including write this blog post). We live in an age where “being busy” is addictive and seems trendy but it’s important to know when to just kick back once in a while.

In the past, I have tried so many different to-list programs and apps, but none of those ever worked or I’d forget about them and just resort to the traditional pen and paper. That was until I discovered HabitRPG. I’ve been using them since the beginning of their Kickstarter campaign (which is now more than fully funded) and my productivity has certainly increased.

What’s cool about this to-do list and habit list is that it is like a game. There are a few game-like applications out there, but they are too much game. This one is simple, you gain experience points and gold and silver. These can be used to buy weapons and armour as well as any guilty pleasures you can custom define. For example, you can make that Game of Thrones episode cost 5 gold so you can feel like you earned it.

It runs on an honor system. You check off all the things you do right and take off points for what you do wrong. If you cheat, you’re just cheating yourself anyway. There’s also a Chrome Extension you can use to gain and lose points for vice and productive sites.

The site is still in it’s infancy with more upcoming features and a promised iPhone/Android app. They’ve just introduced a “party” feature so you can compete with your friends and perhaps do group challenges and boss battles in the future.