User blog:Taldin/New Place, New Habits

I moved last month; new apartment, new roomie, that sort of thing.

It's interesting because I've picked up a bunch of new habits as I try and emulate/mirror my housemate, who is way more orderly than my previous one. Most of the stuff I accumulated over the past 15 years of living with the former housemate went with them; I kept the stuff which really mattered to me, and some stuff to sort through later.

It's also really nice having a housemate who pitches in for the housework. You don't realize how much easier it gets when you're not the only one doing the household chores for a household of two. We've had a bit of a disagreement over the housemate making sure they actually _leave_ me some dishes to do! (They're between jobs right now, and so they're home all day.)    While they tried to explain that while they aren't working, they feel obligated to keep the place clean, I said, "Don't do that.  I'm used to doing all the dishes and all of the cleaning from my last living situation, and if you do it all, I'm going to feel horribly guilty.   And I don't want the bad habits for not doing them." (She used to be a Habitica user, so she gets the reference.)

Really, that's the power of Habitica for me -- the ability to not just keep tasks done for your own personal tracking, but also to do it with friends and family to keep you accountable. The NaNoWriMo is like that for me, too. It's my secret to winning every year - find someone who wants to do it with me, and so I'm motivated to keep up / lead by example. Having someone to compete with for doing the chores really helps make the former mountain that I had to beat back every week/month more of a foothill -- or almost a footnote.

For my next trick, it's time to revisit and revamp my habits list!