Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Breaking and Building Habits

      It is almost a universal conclusion that when a person brings up the topic of habits, the first thing the mind thinks of is BAD habits!  And that is usually exactly what is being talked about.  However, we have to remember that there are also GOOD habits that we all do within our lives.  We need to remember that a habit is “a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.”  So that “tendency or practice” can be either GOOD or BAD! 

     What we’d like to do within our lives is work hard to form the GOOD habits and work even harder to remove our BAD habits!  When there is ANY way, we can help ourselves in doing this, we are usually eager to make it work to our advantage. So in today’s electronic society what is the first thing that comes to our minds?  There’s an app for that. It’s become a running joke; however, there’s an app for everything today.  Well, there usually is!  So, is there an app for habits?  No!  There are a lot of apps for habits.

    I’m going to give you a few of them to consider, but the truth be told you may be able to find many others that better suit your particular circumstances, so don’t hesitate to do a GOOGLE search for “habit apps” and see what you are able to locate.  I’d also like to mention that I AM NOT recommending a specific app for your use, merely providing some information for you to consider.  Also, if any of the apps have fees or charges for their use, I DO NOT receive any type of compensation for recommending their use.  So, let’s get into my listing:

     HabitBull (http://www.habitbull.com/ ) is a free flexible reminder program that lets you develop good habits.  (There is a Premium in-app purchase available according to some of their comments in their FAQ section, but I couldn’t find pricing.)  Habits require repetition and HabitBull provides the reminder to keep you on the track to develop the habit of your choice.

     If you want to walk for three days in the week, HabitBull lets you set reminders on selected days. If you want to read a certain number of pages from a publication or book for half an hour each day, you can record your accomplishments in minutes rather than Yes/No answers. The app creates trends, graphs and tracks your process to create that habit.  HabitBull reminds you that it takes 66 days to create a habit and gives you a progress bar.

     Productive (https://productiveapp.io/ ) Productive separates the new habit creation into three categories, morning and evening and whenever.  It’s selective as to which it shows when, meaning that it shows the AM reminders before noon only and the PM reminders afternoon, also exclusively. This app is designed to force the user into incorporating the habit into their daily schedule as opposed to saving up or getting it over with early.  Their information states it is “free and easy to use,” then further down their home page is a button that says “Try free for 7 days” so it looks like it might be a subscription offer.

     Strides (https://www.stridesapp.com/ ) If you’re after a significant goal like losing weight, saving money reading a large number of books, then you should look at Strides. This app looks at the total time to complete any task and breaks it down into milestones that are measurable, trackable. It creates weekly and monthly goals to keep you on track.  You can build the perfect daily routine.  The app is free, but they do accept donations if you’d like to provide support.

     Streaks (https://streaksapp.com/ ) (currently Android-only). Streaks is an app to help you develop fitness goals. The plus of this app is that it hooks in nicely with Apple’s Health app. It tracks steps, measures heart rate, distance and more. It’s simple, handling only six habits at a time, and has a very easy-to-understand graphics display.  There is a small fee for this app.  At the time of my writing it was $4.99.

     Habitica  (https://habitica.com/static/home ) This app is free and for the iPhone, Android, or web. Habitica takes good habits and converts them into something fun. It converts them into a video game you can play with friends. You can earn badges and battle monsters and hold each other accountable. If either of you fails to complete the reminder, you’re both penalized.  You can use advanced aspects of the “game” and join group plans with monthly subscriptions.

     Coach.me. (https://www.coach.me/ ) This app has plans to coach you through the process of forming athletic habits and training. You can see videos and even contact live coaches for hire.  The core aspect of this app is a capable habit tracker that lets you check off your habits as you do them.  The real value, however, lies in the community and coaching aspects of the app even though you may pay from $25 per week and up for live coaches.

     Beeminder (https://www.beeminder.com/ )  If you really want to “put your money where your mouth is” you might want to check-out beeminder.  If you fail to do a habit, the app will charge your credit card (and the amount they charge will increase each time you fail).  This won’t be motivating for everyone. But if you’re the sort of person who performs best when the stakes are high, you’ll love Beeminder. And in addition to the financial incentives, Beeminder will also show you a huge amount of data about your habits.

     These are only a few of the ways that you may be able to use the present technology to your advantage when trying to eliminate BAD habits and create a new pattern of forming GOOD habits.  However, whatever the method you choose in your quest to improve your personal lifestyle and become the better person you know you can be, never forget that you have an inherent enemy who is always trying to make you fail in your efforts.  This enemy is YOU, because we’re only human!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER


THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Your habits define who you are."



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