Wonder Tools 🥕 Best apps for building good habits
Simple apps for sticking to streaks
Most New Year’s resolutions are buried by now. April’s a great time for a fresh start. So today’s post focuses on simple, useful tools to help you revive a good habit or two. Read on for my favorite app for tracking habits and a few alternatives.
Streaks 🧷
This app makes it easy to pick a few things you want to do daily or weekly and stick to them. Streaks syncs with the Apple Health app, so it can automatically track habits related to sleep, exercise or steps. You can also use it just to check off the habits you stick to and to see how you’re doing over time.
Since I can’t keep up with all my habits every single day, I like challenging myself to improve on long-term patterns the app shows. And I like being able to set up reminders at whatever time I want. Price: $6 iOS, watchOS and Mac only.
(Not Boring) Habits 🗼
This app gives you a virtual pat on the back when you follow-up on your good intentions. Rather than just tracking habits, (Not Boring) Habits (NBH) is designed to help you form them. Many habit trackers simply list daily tasks. NBH instead is inspired instead by principles from behavioral science and elements of gaming. The aim is gamify the process of establishing positive habits or eliminating negative ones.
As you use the app, you progress through eight distinct levels, each representing a different aspect of habit formation. The entire program spans 60 days. That’s based on research showing that the average time it takes for a new habit to become automatic is 66 days (European Journal of Social Psychology, 2009).
There are no ads and no data is collected. Your data never leaves your device. Price: It’s $15/year, or you can buy a package of five different (Not Boring) apps for $30/year. iOS and Mac only.
Loop Habit Tracker ➰
This simple app is one of the most popular Android apps for maintaining good habits. It’s completely free and open source. More than 5 million people have downloaded it and it’s ended up with a 4.7 review rating in the Google Play app store. It’s not the most elegant or fancy-looking app, and there’s no gamification, but if you just want a basic habit tracker and data you can export when necessary, this is a good option. Price: free. Android only
Ink on Paper
Putting pen to paper remains an especially satisfying way for me to track habits. Analog habit tracking feels good because it’s tangible. Paper feels more substantial than a laptop’s lights behind glass. And for real-world reminders, nothing beats my habit list eying me from the wall.
How do you track positive or negative habits? Share a comment 👇
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In case you missed it…
👇Read on below for a special guest review of the brand-new Atoms app by
, a master certified life coach and creator of the Lil' Habit method and newsletter.Atoms
A habit-building app based on the book, Atomic Habits
If you're a fan of James Clear's bestselling book, Atomic Habits, which was Amazon’s top-selling book last year, you'll be intrigued to learn about Atoms, based on the book's principles and insights. Designed as a digital companion to the book, Atoms helps you create and stick to positive habits, one little haptic at a time.
As a master certified coach and creator of the Lil' Habit method, I often recommend Atomic Habits for its masterful deconstruction of effective habit building. So I was curious how Clear and a team of developers would distill the book's key insights into an app.
Strengths
What sets Atoms apart is its deep integration with the Atomic Habits framework. The app guides you through building identity-based habits, focusing on who you want to become rather than just what you want to achieve. When defining your habit, Atoms prompts you to complete the sentence: "I will [HABIT], [TIME/LOCATION] so that I can become [TYPE OF PERSON I WANT TO BE]."
As you build your habit, the app cycles through helpful prompts for each component so that you can set yourself up for success, such as "What's the two-minute version of what you want to do?" When building a new habit, size does matter – expert tip: start ridiculously small.
"In the beginning, performance is irrelevant. Doing something impressive once or twice isn’t going to matter if you never stick with it for the long run. Make your new habit so easy that you can't say no." - James Clear
Atoms supports your habit building journey with features that support the reinforcing feedback loop (CUE | CRAVING | ACTION | REWARD). These include customizable reminders. The app also offers daily lessons from Clear.
Some may find the app's focus on a handful of habits limiting, but as a habit coach, I see this as its superpower. I get it: who doesn’t want to be a whole new person overnight? But you won’t get there building a bunch of habits at once.
Instead, narrow your focus. By starting small and getting curious about what makes you tick, you can disrupt old patterns and build new habits that stick.
Limitations
While Atoms is a fantastic tool, its $70/year pricing may be a barrier. The free version allows you to track one habit, but currently includes pain points that made it unusable for me, like a pop-up when I attempt to track. The app does offer a 28-day free trial of the pro version, giving you a chance to sample its features and benefits.
If you're looking for a habit-building app that offers a deeper, principles-based approach to personal growth, Atoms is worth exploring. Reflect on your own goals and challenges, and consider using the trial month to see how it works for you.
As you embark on your habit-building journey, start small. Focus on identity-based habits, and celebrate progress along the way. With the right tools and mindset, you really can transform your life, one small step at a time.
Andrea Engstrom is a master certified life coach and creator of the Lil' Habit method. Learn more at LilHabit.com, subscribe to her Substack and connect with her @lilhabit4u.
I have tried many many to-do and habit tracking apps, and the one I've found that I've stuck with is Strides (premium version, which if I recall is $40/year). This is for tracking my habits across many dimensions and types of habits.
For to-dos and other productivity assistance I still rely on Notes a lot for ongoing tracking; I have a Rocketbook habit for that satisfying physical act of checking a box with "paper" and ink, and I'm messing about with Notion and its various templates. I still use To-doist, but I will likely drop that one at some point this year.
I love that analog ("Ink on Paper") gets a shoutout!