There is a wealth of scientific data behind the behavioral mechanics in Habitica, which are largely based on the theory of operant conditioning developed by behavioral psychologist B.F. But you would be mistaken because it is much more than that. It’s easy to dismiss Habitica as just a game. Habitica uses these same psychological principles to motivate you to achieve things in your real life, from exercising everyday to eating healthy. Modern games (especially online games, like World of Warcraft) use a number of psychological tricks to deeply motivate you to achieve specific objectives. Habitica is a habit building and productivity app which treats your real life like a game. Platform: Web, Mobile Habitica: Gamifies Real Tasks I discovered this tool through AppSumo and signed up for a lifetime subscription. The science is based on electrical brain activity analyzed by an EEG (electroencephalograph a brainwave sensor). In short: your brain responds to particular frequencies which can promote relaxation, focus or deep sleep. Read about the science here: Beginner’s Guide to Brainwave Training. Whether you’re working, relaxing, meditating or sleeping, they work. The sound clips range from dark and ominous atmosphere, to waves crashing on a beach to what sounds like high intensity laser beams. Late in 2015, I found something better: a productivity tool called brain.fm which generates “brainwave entrainment” audio to increase focus. What I found is that listening to music with lyrics is distracting, and listening to new music while working was also distracting, so my routine was to have the same songs playing on repeat (many others, like Matt Mullenweg, do this also). Platform: Mac Brain.fm: Brainwave-altering Audioįor the last few years I have been working while listening to Spotify. Read either of the books mentioned above, sign up for a paid $29/year Todoist subscription (it’s worth it) and see how much effective you are. That lack of friction is crucial to adopting the habit. The ability to add a task and assign a time or day to it in about three seconds means I do it all the time. Calendar sync and the ability to quickly input tasks with a keystroke are critical for me. Todoist has been my favorite by far, because it’s available on every platform you use (desktop, mobile, web) and has a ton of functionality and customization. I’ve tried a ton of todo list applications. Both very convincingly made the same point: top performers track many small details with lists, which frees their minds to focus on what’s really important. A few years ago I read two books on this subject: Atul Gawande’s Checklist Manifesto and David Allen’s Getting Things Done. Todoist is one of the most popular apps for using lists to track things. At the bottom is a deprecated list of tools which I no longer use, along with an explanation. I’ve tested them thoroughly and vouch for them all. These are the apps which I believe everyone can benefit from trying out, and those which I have had in my daily rotation for at least a year. This is a list of those tools, in no particular order. Over the years I’ve gotten into the habit of condensing my toolset to the essentials. It is where I store my thoughts, track my progress, write, design, make music, and produce my work. A Macbook Pro is central to virtually all my productive efforts.
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