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Nice work! These 'habit tracking' concepts/products always have my attention. I built one myself 10 years ago - only personal use, but still using it - and I ha
by rambambram 5y ago
Nice work! These 'habit tracking' concepts/products always have my attention. I built one myself 10 years ago - only personal use, but still using it - and I had big plans.
I'm a bit cynical now, about habit apps. I think they act more like a coping mechanism, a stress center, a buffer, etc. I also thought about more gamification to make it easier. Now, I think that's a slippery slope. I mean, what is it: a tracking app, or a game!? To me, they are opposites now. Gaming is for fun, changing habits is not a fun process. It's a serious and important process, but not fun. Free kudos (basically pixels on a screen) are not going to change that, but maybe that's just my cynical side speaking.
What I did found out was that my app was perfect for tracking expenses and putting spent money in neat boxes. It became more of a personal finance app this way. It became a general tracking app, without the habit changing part.
Another thing that I found out: I used procrastination as a means to change some habits. I gave myself points for procrastinating that next cup of coffee, for example. So maybe the gamification angle can work, I still don't know.
Also, changing habits is an all-encompassing process. Change of environment, inner change, change of deeper layers (which might be the root cause of some habits), etc. I wondered a lot if a tracking app can be enough.
Then there's two important distinctions I found.
The distinction between an app for habits in general, and an app for specific habits. I see you also chose the general path, with a multitude of habits that one can track. I chose that direction too, and I noticed that there's too much of a difference between habits. Drinking alcohol for example is different than eating too much junk, although they might seem similar.
The distinction between habits that you want to quit, and the habits you want to do more. Completely different approach. Although I still think there's power in swapping one for the other. Eat an apple instead of smoking a cigarette. Go to the gym instead of hanging out and drinking beers. Etc.
And at last, what's a habit? Is someone smoking cigarettes a habit or an addiction? Is "read books" (as I saw on your homepage) a habit, or just an act that you do?
I don't want to discourage you or other people, these are just some thoughts I had that might be of value. Good luck!
P.S. One of the main takes I learned, was that some kind of external thing can really help with changing habits. I noticed people with Apple Watches who took there exercise/fitness way more serious because that device gave you rainbows, fireworks and other colorful pixels when you reached some walking target or something. The tracking is done for you, there's no work entering stuff yourself, so only the shiny rainbow at the end. I myself really liked entering the stuff, but the positive kudos are linked to the act of entering, not to the habit changing.
- marclou 5y agoThanks for sharing your thoughts! Gaming isn't always fun. You play a game when you collect stamps on that restaurant's card to get a free coffee after 10 visits. Games are powerful for making us achieve things we don't necessarily want to do. At least, that's what I believe, and I hope it will work out for you too :)
- rambambram 5y agoNo thanks! You're right in a sense. Everything is a game. I personally hate these discount games at commercial venues. Maybe the gamification might not work on everybody, and it might work better on people who also collect stamps for free coffee. But are we talking 'transactional analysis' now? Or does 'gamification' still mean creating artificial challenges and rewards, like in computer games? Habits are pretty personal, not some external thing like collecting stamps for a free something-something. And that, to me, is the hard part about habit tracking/changing apps. The motivation and rewards for change becomes offloaded on something else. Which might work for some use cases, for a while. > Games are powerful for making us achieve things we don't necessarily want to do. Parents are also pretty powerful for this goal, just as the rest of real life. ;)
- marclou 5y ago[dead]