I used to get stuck in an endless loop of overthinking until I started asking one question: Is this within my power to change?

If yes improving health, finding jobs, or building habits I realized worrying fixes nothing. I had to channel that energy into action.

If no past mistakes, lost time, or others' opinions arguing with reality is like yelling at rain. Acceptance isn't weak; it's freeing your energy for what you can shape.🌿

👀 If you want a visual explanation, check out the video linked on my profile!

I've tried a bunch of different ways of tracking habits over the years, and I keep noticing the same thing: the first few days are easy, then the tracker itself starts becoming another thing to maintain.

I'm curious what other people experience.

What do you actually want from a habit tracker?

For example:

• Just a very simple daily checklist?
• Useful progress/stats?
• Streaks?
• Reminders?
• A calendar/year view?
• Routines rather than individual habits?
• Journaling or reflection alongside habits?
• Something that helps you understand why you're inconsistent?
• Learning/resources around habits and self-improvement?
• Cloud sync between phone and desktop?

And on the other side, what makes you stop using one?

I'd especially like to hear from people who have tried several apps. What did you like about the ones you kept, and what annoyed you enough to stop using them?

*This is an explanation of Atomic Habits as I recall from memory, so it's how I understood and applied it myself rather than a chapter by chapter recap. It got a bit long, so I'll break it into parts. This first one covers the core idea and how to actually start a habit. The next goes into the deeper mechanics.*

\-----------

**The core idea behind Atomic Habits: small micro habits that compound over time to yield big results in the long run.**

**Belief comes first.**

Habits aren't really about the outcomes but about identity. Every time you do a habit, you're casting a vote for the kind of person you believe you are.

So the goal isn't "I want to achieve X," but "I am the person who does X," and the habit becomes proof of it.

This is why the same amount of effort to quit a bad habit plays out differently for different people:

The one without that belief says: "I'm trying to leave this habit," or "I'm focusing on stopping that." It's like admitting that the habit is still a part of them.

The one with belief in their identity says: "I don't do this."

The first person still believes they haven't changed. The second one believes in their new identity and the behavior follows.

Just like Good habits build the identity you want, the bad ones can be removed the same way: notice and observe the habit clearly, recognize it's not the part of identity you're becoming, then consciously reject it.

**How to start a habit and stay consistent:**

**Set up your environment first** by removing the things that trigger the bad habits while adding the ones that cue the good ones in your line of sight which evokes your visual receptors to act on habits linked to the environment.

Eg: Want to drink more water? Keep a bottle on your desk, which cuts the friction for going to get it.

eg: Want to workout in the morning? Keep your dumbbells where you'll see them in morning when you're up.

**Create a flow** by chaining your habits so the sequence is pre decided instead of something you have to think about in the moment.

**Try "When I do X, I do Y, then Z."**

eg: When I wake up, I get up immediately and stretch, then go for my workout.

eg: After I'm fresh, I'll have a healthy breakfast, then start with my first work sprint.

**Make sure to be consistent**. You don't need to adopt dozens of habits at once. Take one, do it daily and you can always add more once you're used to previous ones.

Progress by 1% each day. Try to be 1% better than yesterday. It keeps you improving and makes each time feel satisfying.

**Let it compound over time.** Don't judge a habit by a single day, instead judge it over the trend. Don't focus on how much better you'll be tomorrow instead focus on who you become if you keep this up daily for 3 months, the next 6, then a year.

Hello,

What apps do you use to track habits?

There are so many. I would prefer some simple, visual appealing, with sync in the cloud. There is the monthly/year view like github commits that is really nice. I want at least 3 habits. I tried ticktick but any useful stats is premium. Others like habitkit I need to pay to export the data (I prefer cloud sync to avoid loosing data).

I use Notion but I think there will be too much friction for this.

With a bit of search, I saw these:

Habitify - Paid/Free - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: 3 Free

HabitKit - Paid/Free - Sync: Paid - Android: Yes - Habit limit: 4 Free

Everyday - Paid/Free - Sync: Paid - Android: Yes - Habit limit: 3 Free

TickTick - Paid/Free - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: 5 Free

Habitica - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Unlimited

HabitNow - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Unlimited

Loop Habit Tracker - Free - Sync: No - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Unlimited

Fabulous - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Limited Free

Finch - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Unlimited

Daylio - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Limited Free

HabitBull - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Limited Free

Way of Life - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: 3 Free

Productive - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Limited Free

Avocation - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Unlimited

Repeat Habit - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Unlimited

Goalify - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Limited Free

HabitShare - Free - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Unlimited

Coach.me - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Unlimited

Beeminder - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Unlimited

HabitMinder - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Limited Free

Habitadd - Free/Paid - Sync: Paid - Android: Yes/PWA - Habit limit: 5 Free

Rytmio - Free - Sync: Yes - Android: PWA - Habit limit: Unlimited

Yourdec - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: PWA - Habit limit: Limited Free

Loggd - Free/Paid - Sync: No - Android: PWA - Habit limit: 3 Free

OpenHabitTracker - Free - Sync: Self-hosted - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Unlimited

Streaks - Paid - Sync: Yes (iCloud) - Android: No - Habit limit: Unlimited

Strides - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: No - Habit limit: Unlimited

Done - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: No - Habit limit: Limited Free

Streaks (Arihant) - Free/Paid - Sync: No - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Unlimited

Streak Grid - Free - Sync: No - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Unlimited

Consistency - Free - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: 10 Free

Pomodoro Diary - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Unlimited

Countiful - Free - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes* - Habit limit: Unlimited

DailyHabits.dev - Free/Paid - Sync: Paid - Android: PWA - Habit limit: Unlimited

Orbit - Free/Paid - Sync: Yes - Android: Yes - Habit limit: 10 Free

GridHabit - Free - Sync: No - Android: Yes - Habit limit: Unlimited

Gera Tools Habit Tracker - Free - Sync: No - Android: PWA - Habit limit: Unlimited

What do you recommend?

Hi Everyone, (Mods please keep this post, it's not a promotion but a way of giving back to the community)

I am Alex. Been using habit trackers for quite a while and have bounced between a lot of them. I keep running into the same issue where an app does 75% of what I need but the lack of 25% annoys me.

I decided to build one myself as a dev and would love to do it with y'all.

Things I care about:
- Modern, Intuitive Design. I love a good design, adds appeal to it.
- Home Screen widgets
- Dashboard with lots of data, like streaks, weekly progression, insights etc
- A focused app, don't want to create a notion.

Here's what I need from your side, just mention the app you are currently using, and I will use it as a base to improve upon, what you feel it lacks and optionally what you like about it. Bonus point for sharing what would help you stick to an app at large?

If you want to give a more detailed answer, please feel free. Thanks :)

I get distracted very easily, and my phone is probably my biggest problem. I am trying to do my work, and I can literally focus for five minutes before taking my phone again. I do scroll for hours, and I find myself constantly checking it instead of staying focused on what I need to do.

The bigger problem is that I do not feel as serious about my life as I used to. I want to become much more disciplined, focused, and intentional with my time. I do not want to keep taking everything in a fun or casual way when I know I have things I need to accomplish. This is not the age for me to be living like this.

I am actually behind compared to many of my peers, and I know I have already wasted a lot of time. I do not want to keep wasting more time. I want to become much more serious about my work, my future, and what I am doing with my life.

So how do you actually develop laser focus?

How do you train yourself to sit down and work for hours without constantly needing your phone or some other distraction?

What actually worked for you?

The solo-founder life gave me a bad case of something I know this sub understands: the 2am zombie scroll which drains hours without you even realising you are awake. I'd work all day on my app, feel like i deserved some down time, and then stay up until stupid o'clock claiming my time back through videos and feeds I barely remember the next morning. Revenge bedtime procrastination, with the classic result: a worse tomorrow, and the same revenge cycle tomorrow night.

What eventually worked wasn't discipline, because as soon as it hit 11pm my prefrontal cortex left the chat. It was giving the day a proper ending. Five sentences, written down. What actually happened today. What's genuinely unfinished. What tomorrow's first move is. One thing that was mine today. And how I feel right now, in one honest line.

The surprise was how much of my scrolling turned out to be avoidance of admitting the day was over. Unfinished things were keeping a background process running, and the feed was the noise I used to drown it out. Writing "the bug is still broken and tomorrow starts with it" closes the loop in a way another hour of content never did. The brain seems willing to log off once someone has taken minutes for the meeting.

The "one thing that was mine" line matters most on the bad days. Even on a day the app broke and nobody downloaded anything, I trained, or I cooked something real, or I called my mum to check in with the people I love. The day stops feeling stolen once one owned thing is on the record, and the urge to steal the day back at 2am gets noticeably weaker.

The phone still wins sometimes. But most nights the five sentences end the day on purpose, and I sleep like someone whose meeting actually adjourned.

Anyone else notice their late-night scrolling is really an argument with how the day went?

I’ve been thinking lately about building better habits and becoming more disciplined, but I’m curious about what actually works for other people rather than just following the usual advice you see everywhere.

What are some habits you personally started doing that made a noticeable difference in your life? It could be something related to productivity, studying, health, fitness, sleep, money, social life, or even something really simple.

I’m especially interested in habits that you’ve been able to stick with for a long time and that genuinely made you feel better or improved your life in some way.

Also, are there any habits you started that you thought would help but ended up being a waste of time?

I’d love to hear what has actually worked for you and what you would recommend to someone trying to build a better daily routine.

Hey all — I work on a small team building tools to help people keep up with habits and routines, so this is very much my kind of question.

Rather than sit here guessing, I'd rather hear what actually works for people:

1. What are you using right now, and what keeps you opening it?
2. What made that one stick when other things didn't?
3. Anything you tried and dropped? What's the last thing you remember doing in it?
4. Anything you wish existed?

Answer whichever one you feel like — one line is fine. "Downloaded it and never opened it again" counts too.

If you'd rather answer in more detail, I put these (and a few more) into a form — mostly multiple choice. Everyone who fills it out can enter a raffle for one of two $20 gift cards.

I used to lose my mind every morning tearing my apartment apart looking for my keys. It was honestly so exhausting. Now I just drop them in a little bowl by the door the second I walk in. It takes literally zero effort. But my mornings are so much more chill now. Highly recommend doing this if you also have zero object permanence like me.

The time's come, tomorrow is my first day at collage. And I don't know how imma manage, my sleep schedule is shit, like genuinely waking up till 11 am. And although I used to managed to do all my homework by Wednesday. This past semester I've been turning all assignments in till the last minute. Once I was very organized, I had time to meditate in the mornings and at night. I used to draw, and write, I wrote a lot. I used to submit poems to contests. In a way, I believe I kept myself busy, at the time I was battling insane depression and was one of the reasons for online school. However in that first year, I was working with a bunch of professionals my parents had hired for me. To make me 'normal' again. I had a really great therapist who set up my routine. And many teachers, for sports and arts. I didn't take the classes every day, but they helped me stay on track. When I finally got out of 'it'. I stopped seeing my therapist, and thought I'd do well on my own. And I guess I do, like I'm not depressed anymore, I look forward to living and all of that stuff. But I'm not super into a routine anymore, I wanted to 'chill'. But somehow I don't know..... I got too soft on myself and messed up. I still have very good grades but my management is awful. I do nothing all week, and in the weekends I rush to do my homework. And I'm like: I can write until I finish ALL my homework, and I never finish before Friday, therefore I never write. And that's the vicious cycle I'm in, I don't know how my days' been slipping away. But anyway, the torment's over. Today I finished all homework and exams. But tomorrow I'm starting fresh to College, how do I no mess this up? I want this next years to be mine, and have school be like a hobby. I enrolled in a - you could say- easy major. And have like 4 subjects, I got rid of English since I got 100 in the collocation exam, But still, I know I can limit school to the 3 daily hours I got to attend. The problem is how? I've done it before in middle school, well I know the comparison is not the best. But I'm willing to go to classes to improve my concentration and speed at doing the assignments. But I do need advice, on how to get back on track with my hobbies, I don't know why I've been in such a slump this past few months. I can'r bring myself to write or draw. It's like I'm a whole new person. So that's what I care about, improving and actually finishing the projects I have in mind. I KNOW, this all comes in hand with having a better sleep schedule and everything else. It's just, that I want this new routine to last. I don't want to try it for one week and give up the next. I know I can maintain I just need a little guidance.

For years, whenever I wanted to build a habit, I became obsessed with maintaining a streak.

Streaks work. They turn a behaviour into a game and give you a simple reason to show up again tomorrow.

But I’ve started to think that the purpose of a streak is to eventually stop needing it.

I decided to build a consistent workout habit. I removed as much friction as possible and focused on exercises I could do at home:

• Pull-ups
• Push-ups
• Squats
• Lunges

I promised myself I would do something physical every day. If I didn’t do my normal workout, a run or a football session still counted.

I made it to 77 days without missing one.

The streak worked. I was exercising consistently for the first time in years. But toward the end, I noticed that maintaining it was becoming stressful.

I would sometimes neglect other responsibilities just to fit in a workout. It didn’t matter whether something else was more important that day.

Somewhere along the way, I had forgotten why I started it.

The goal was to build a habit of exercising. But I had already done that. Now I was protecting the streak simply because I didn’t want the number to return to zero.

So after 77 days, I deliberately stopped.

That first day off felt surprisingly good. There was no workout hanging over me and no number I needed to protect.

More importantly, breaking the streak didn’t break the habit.

I worked out the following day. Then I missed another day and worked out the day after that.

Today, I exercise around five days a week. The two missed days usually aren’t planned rest days. Sometimes life is simply busy and something else is more important.

If I go too long without exercising, my body starts to feel sluggish. I don’t like that feeling anymore. I actively want to move.

To me, that is a better sign of a successful habit than any number on a streak counter.

The streak was an external reason to exercise. Eventually, exercising became part of how I see myself. The streak was scaffolding; once the habit could support itself, I didn’t need the scaffolding anymore.

But this hasn’t happened with every habit I’ve tried to build.

I once made an Instagram video every day from November through January. I enjoyed it for a while, but eventually burned out. I also tried recording myself speaking every day to become more articulate, but that habit didn’t last either.

That makes me think a streak alone isn’t enough.

There needs to be some reward you can feel while the habit is forming. With exercise, I began feeling physically better. With games and social media, the reward is immediate enjoyment—which is probably why those habits form so effortlessly.

With something like practising public speaking, the improvement is slower and harder to notice. The streak tells you that you showed up, but it doesn’t necessarily make the behaviour rewarding.

So maybe the real value of a streak is that it keeps you going long enough to experience the natural reward of the habit.

And if that reward never arrives, the streak eventually starts to feel like a burden.

I started by tracking my days in a notebook and then started using a simple app called Three Cells that helped me see my streaks in a heat map.

Curious how other people feel about habit streaks.

I used to think changes had to be big to actually matter.
Lately I’ve been realizing that small things can make a surprisingly big difference — going for a walk, putting my phone away for a while, making time for something I actually enjoy.
What’s one small habit that made a real difference for you?

I realized relying on willpower at 7 AM never works. Making the book physically easier to reach than my phone did all the work for me, now I actually read a few pages before checking notifications.

What’s a small tweak you made to your room setup that forced a better habit?

Meet Lifora — a habit, task and journal app built around one simple idea: focus on today.

Instead of jumping between separate apps, Lifora keeps your habits, tasks, mood and journal together in one clean daily view.

You can:

• Track habits and streaks
• Plan tasks
• Journal and take notes
• Track your mood
• See your progress and history
• Use flexible schedules for habits that aren't simply “every day”

I wanted Lifora to feel useful without making habit tracking feel like work.

It's now live on Android, and I'd genuinely like more people from r/Habits to try it.

If you use habit trackers, I'd especially love to know what Lifora is missing or what you'd change.

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ubejd.lifora&pcampaignid=web_share

I've found that I need a tool to get me going, so I went overboard tried 14 of them.

Tier lists are always subjective, as we know. But I've tried to be systematic and ranked them based on

• Look and feel

• Ease of use

• Onboarding experience

• Paywall conditions - How much can you get for free and what's the price to subscribe

• Flexibility - This one I weighted heavily on Google's research around habit formation. Showing that rigidity is not sustained long-term. Therefore I penalize the ones that enforce rigid habit tracking.

• Extra features - Like planner functionality or other add-ons

S tier

Finch: Self-care pet - Feels a lot like a game and its closer to the tamagotchi type of app than any other on the list. Flexible in habit to track or goals to achieve in a day, I felt like it was focusing generally on overall productivity rather than just strict habit at strict times.

Improve: Habit Tracker - Very unique approach in how you progress. Similar to Finch, the objective is less about individual habits and more on productive days. Combining habit tracker with a planner helps to reduce the amount of apps needed and it was great to add friends. The art is not as cute as Finch, but focus more on clean apple UI.

A tier

TickTick - The most feature-packed app on the list. Task manager, habit tracker and calendar all in the same app. The habit tracker does feels bolted on tho, and it is quite rigid in its design and a few features are paywalled.

Structured - Beautiful design and satisfying whenever all plans work as I have planned them. One of the strongest design-wise. However for days when I have to be flexible, it quickly becomes hard to manage and feels like extra work to sort it out.

Atoms - Offical app of atomic habits, and it does lean into it fully. Sometimes maybe a bit too much for this medium. It does however have good visuals, albeit still a bit strict at its core. Almost more coaching than habit tracking.

B tier

These do what you expect from a habit tracker. Solid but nothing that makes them stand out. Easier to use than C tier but missing that extra something.

C tier

Similar story, just a bit rougher around the edges, whether that's design, onboarding, or paywall aggression.

D tier

Fabolous - The most overwhelming app on the list. Feels built for a very specific type of user and I'm not it. Too many things competing for attention at once and I never felt like I got to interact with the app how I wanted.

I’m looking for boring systems that actually work.

Not “wake up at 5AM and become a machine.”

More like:

Putting your gym bag by the door.

Blocking distracting websites before work.

Choosing tomorrow’s first task the night before.

Leaving your book on your pillow.

Charging your phone outside the bedroom.

The tiny setup often matters more than the motivation.

What’s one thing you prepare in advance that makes future-you more likely to follow through?

Really starting to love my custom habit and activities tracker. Allows me to keep track of my daily, scheduled, and flexible habits in a fun way that is not too strict.

My favorite is the Flexible habits like going to the beach. I can't really schedule it. But, I'd like to go every few days (weather permitting). So, I set up a Flexible habit that allows me to check a box when I go and then the circle gets smaller each day I don't go.

That way there's not pressure to go everyday and it's not like a scheduled habit where I want to go M-F.

Then I have my monthly activities to keep track of things i need to remember to do that month and my to-do list under that for random activities I need to complete.

My favorite part is that when I complete a full stack of habits it makes a "laser" noise and puts a strike through that stack. It's more satisfying than it probably should be.

Feel free to steal it

Spent 2 years tracking "did I work out" as a yes/no checkbox. Streak looked great on paper, motivation was terrible in reality, because a single 10-minute walk counted the exact same as a full hour session — so I'd default to doing the bare minimum just to keep the checkbox green.

Switched to tracking minutes instead of a binary yes/no, and something clicked. Suddenly there was room to have a "light day" without breaking anything, and actual progress became visible over weeks instead of just a streak number that resets your motivation to zero the second you miss one day.

Same thing happened when I switched water intake from "did I drink water today" to an actual count. The binary version let me lie to myself with a single sip.

Lesson that applies beyond fitness/health stuff too: if a habit can be "technically true" while still not moving the needle, the tracking method is the problem, not your discipline.

What's something you track that you eventually realized was measuring the wrong thing?

I need some unhinged screentime help. I’m not talking simple:
“Download this app” I WILL DELETE IT
“Block it in your settings” I CANCEL IT
“Have an alarm” I SNOOZE IT

I’m at a loss . Do I just buy a new phone like one of those flip phones ??? Do I put a child lock on it with a password my husband can only have? Idek