newsonaut

Turning inner space into outer space

January 3, 2021

Reclaim your habits with Streaks

I've used pencil and paper to keep track of my habits, and was doing well for a few months. Then came December.

First, I put off printing a new sheet at the beginning of the month, as is required with this method. Then I thought I would just sort-of remember my habits — they were habits, after all.

By the end of December, most of my habits were in disarray. In fact, there was one I couldn't even remember.

So once again, I checked out some apps. There are some really nice ones, but almost all of them want you to register, subscribe or both. I will do neither.

Which leads me to Streaks — you buy it for $7 (price varies by country) and it's yours.

It has a beautiful interface where you set up your habits. Mine are mostly things I want to do once a day, but there are other options and variations, such a certain number of times per week or month. You can also set lengths of time and distances.

Each habit gets its own icon. I was pleasantly surprised to see it choose the yin-yang symbol for my tai chi habit.

As you complete your habits, little charts and calendars keep track by showing your streaks. The longer you keep up the habit, the longer the streak – and the satisfaction that comes with that.

You can set it to send notifications so you don't forget. Another reminder comes in the form of a badge on the icon with the number of habits you still need to fulfil for the day.

I put the app on my phone in the same area as my news apps, which I obsessively check. That makes it even harder to ignore.

So far, I'm pretty happy with Streaks. I wish there were more apps like this — a simple service at a fair price.