With the new year upon us, a lot of us are looking at our habits—good ones we want to pick up and bad ones we want to give up. There is some science supporting the idea that, if you do something on a daily basis for a month (or two or three), it will become a habit and so be a lot easier to do regularly from then on.
For me, that has meant that it's time for "habit apps" for my iPhone. While in theory I should be able to just do these things without any electronic assistance, I'm geeky enough that tracking habits with my iPhone actually provides me more motivation to keep up with them. I know I'm not alone. Talking to geek friends, I know many of them, too, are using habit trackers these days to start doing things like keeping their inboxes empty, taking their daily meds, and cleaning the garage every Sunday.
The right app for the job
The Habit List app lets you quickly and simply compile a list of habits you want to establish, with flexible reminder times.
When I first started tracking habits, I did it in OmniFocus, my task management application of choice. But it wasn't a great fit: I didn't like my habit-related tasks mixed in with my work and personal ones. The app didn't provide an easy way for me to monitor my historical progress, either.
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