I’m eagerly awaiting my second paycheck here in China. I, like most people here, only get paid once a month. But while I’m waiting for the money to come in (so I can do nothing with it), I decided to look into getting back into exercising. And I’m giving gamification another chance to get me fit.
I’ve tried to make exercise and cleaning more fun by gamifying them in the past, but I have had limited success. I would do great for about a week and then slowly, or sometimes quickly, get bored or distracted and give up.
However, my journey to work already includes a 30-minute walk each way, which I’ve been listening to some audio courses to learn some random new things. I even have a course on teaching that I’m planning on starting soon.
Since I’m now hitting 10,000 steps most days I go to work, I think it’s time to start adding in other exercises to get more than my legs in shape.
My preferred forms of exercise are yoga and occasionally some running. I brought my yoga mat to China with me for just this reason. Even though it’s way too hot for me to be running outside (I feel like I’ll get heat stroke just walking around), my apartment has a small gym right near my room that has a treadmill and some other equipment.
After a quick Google search and some time in the Play store, I settled on trying (or retrying) out 4 apps – Habitica, SuperBetter, Tusk, and LifeRPG.
I had tried Habitica once before but gave up fairly quickly in favor of another app that was better suited my needs at the time.
SuperBetter
I gave up on SuperBetter very quickly. I’m sure it would be the right choice for someone, but I wanted something that was more of a game, preferably something a bit easier to understand.
There were all sorts of weird titles for things. And it made it really hard to set up. After reading for a very long time, it seems to be less of a game to keep me on track with chores and daily activities, and more something to make sure I do things to be happier and more resilient, whatever that means. But it’s all backed by science!
Overall, it was too confusing and complicated for me to want to use it. It didn’t meet my current needs or desires. It was the first one deleted.
Tusk
Tusk looks nice and seems to be able to do what I want. I can create tasks, set them to repeat as needed, and check them off when finished. You do have to swipe right or left to check off a task or skip it, which I found really annoying.
But they have a very nice, long list of task suggestions. However, a lot of them, I wouldn’t create a task to do, for example, you can set one to go on a date night with your partner or to take a pet to the vet. To me, they are tasks that you should want to do or do maybe once a year. Why create a task for it?
However, there really isn’t a game to play. You do get badges for completing designated achievements, but it’s not really what I want.
If you’re looking for just a nice-looking task list, this is your app. If you’re looking for a game to encourage you to do more so your character doesn’t die or levels up, keep looking.
LifeRPG
LifeRPG, on the other hand, is very bare-bones. You have to create everything yourself. And I mean everything.
You create all the tasks, set their difficulty, and schedule. Which I am happy about. Not every task is as challenging to complete as every other and it varies from household to household. For example, washing the dishes, for me, is very easy – I have 2. However, for a family of 4, it could be a lot of work.
But you also have to create your “character’s” skills. You can base them on what you’re doing, like if you have a lot of cleaning tasks, you could create a skill called “cleanliness” or “housekeeping”, or you could just call it “awesome skill 1”.
The visuals of the app also leave something to be desired. It reminds me of the late 90s or early 00s where a black background with some bright colors was cool. It does have a very large selection of icons that can be used for the tasks, and while they are nice, they are all white.
While I like this app and wish I had a week to spend setting it up, I don’t really want to do all of the work. I mean, that’s the whole point of getting the app!
Overall, LifeRPG needs some modern visuals and a lot of time to set up. However, if you want to control everything, this is the app for you.
Habitica
I tried Habitica once before but stopped using it in favor of a different app that was more of a repeating list. At the time, that was what I was looking for and it worked great for a few years.
Now, I want to play a game and not be reminded that I’m an adult who needs to do chores and exercise regularly. I want something fun.
It was easy to set it up with some tasks I need. However, they have “habits” (tasks that can be done repeatedly) and “dailies” (tasks that are done one and repeated on a schedule), and a “to-do” list (things that are only done once). I got them confused and put most of my dailies in the habits part. I put my cleaning in as habits.
Once that was straightened out, I went looking around the app at all the game playing – you collect weapons and armor, get pets and mounts, go on quests and fight monsters with a party (my party is just me, no friends required).
I also found “challenges”. Other users create a challenge, or a set of tasks (can be habits, dailies, and/or to-dos). Some of them even have a game plot. Some of the more interesting ones I’ve seen are to help read or study more, study languages/Duolingo, and a bunch of exercise ones.
I chose one to help with exercising. I have to do certain exercises a certain number of times, which I can change to suit my current fitness and exercise preferences (I hate burpees!). I do a certain number of the exercise, count it in the habits, and check things off in the dailies and to-do list. It sounds complicated, and it is, but once I understood what to do (and read the instructions a couple times), I’m enjoying it and think it might help me keep exercising.
Overall, this app has the game aspects I’m looking for and I don’t have to do everything myself (yay, laziness!). I think this one might be a keeper, at least for now.
And I’m looking forward to defeating some giant dust bunnies!
If you have any questions about any of the terms I’ve used, look in the glossary.
My TEFL Adventure 