Friday, March 29, 2024

Best apps to help you make habits and stick to them

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Make a habit of making habits with these helpful tracking apps.

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You’re probably sick of hearing the same old clichés about getting a handle back on life. Well, I’m not here to give you that rah-rah speech. Whether you get back on the saddle is ultimately up to you, but I can help you on a journey by suggesting a few apps that are effective at helping implement healthier habits into your daily life.

Whether your goal for the year is to simply text your friends more often or to get into shape, here are a few Android apps worth trying out for yourself.

Habitica

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If the standard check-it-off list of things to doesn’t work for you, try to gamify your goals with Habitica. This app turns your everyday tasks and weekly goals into a riveting role-playing game. You can sign up with your Google or Facebook account and then create an avatar that looks like you. Every task, habit, and to-do that you cross off rewards you money and experience points that you can redeem for items and upgrades.

Be forewarned that there are quite a few nuances to Habitica. If you’re serious about truly turning your daily life into a game, you’ll have to stick with the program. There are penalties for not completing daily tasks. If you need help staying on track, you can join a guild with several others to ensure that your character is leveled up with completed tasks before the next boss fight.

Download Habitica (Free, IAP)

Todoist

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Having trouble getting the day-to-day in order? Todoist can be a particularly effective aid in managing those daily, weekly, and monthly tasks, whether it’s at work or in your personal life. The app is built using the standard Material Design layout, complete with a hamburger menu and floating action buttons. It’s also cross-platform, so you can use it on your smartphone, computer, or smartwatch. You can also add tasks with Google Home or by forwarding an email.

Be aware that you’ll have to pay an annual membership fee — around $30 a year — to unlock Todoist’s full set of features, which also includes themes, push notifications, and the ability to sync up with Dropbox or Google Drive.

Download Todoist (Free, IAP)

Loop Habit Tracker

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Loop Habit Tracker is merely a “simple” tracking app because it isn’t bogged down by all the extra elements that tracking apps typically require of you. There are no due dates or sprint goals, nor do you have to log in to have others hold you accountable. All you have to do is press and hold when you’ve completely a task and move on with your day.

As you get through completing tasks, Loop Habit Tracker will aggregate all of that data for you into an easy-to-read detailed graph. The app lets you backup that data to take it with you, and it supports imports from other applications, including the popular app Habitbull, which did not make this roundup because of its confusing multi-tier payment options.

Download Loop Habit Tracker (Free)

Nomie

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If you have trouble remembering to complete the minutiae of the day-to-day, Nomie might be your answer for getting it done. You can use Nomie to track anything. If you can assign it an icon and a name, you can track it. For every item you create, you can choose whether ticking the items has a positive or negative impact on your overall score. Best of all, Nomie is completely private. You don’t need an account to keep track of your data. When you’re ready to switch smartphones, simply carry over that data by exporting and backing it up to Dropbox.

Download Nomie (Free)

What about you?

Trying to implement a new habit this year? Found an app that you like? Share it in the comments!

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