AMMDI is an open-notebook hypertext writing experiment, authored by Mike Travers aka mtraven. It's a work in progress and some parts are more polished than others. Comments welcome! More.
What is the difference between practices, habits, routines, rituals, and other names for activities that are done over and over again?
Well, let's group them a bit. Practices and rituals on the one hand, habits and routines on the other. The former are more pretentious, they are supposed to be part of a process of self-improvement and you are supposed to get better at them over time. They sound like something you are taught and that makes you part of a culture (Jewish practices, yogic practices, whatever). They sound more social, although they can be done alone. They sound more intentional.
Habits and routines OTOH sound rather dull and mechanical. They sound like something unconscious or semi-conscious. The most abject slave fieldhand has habits, any kind of work involves developing ingrained habits, they may be very pragmatic but they don't have any status connotations, they lack that verticality to use Sloterdijk's term.
That said, I think the true aim of practice, if it must have one, is to erase this distinction.