Home » 16 – Tech Tools to Track Habits and Have Fun!

16 – Tech Tools to Track Habits and Have Fun!

by Jill

“Plant seeds every single day that you know who you are, you know what you’re about, and you know what goals you’ve set for yourself.” —Steph Curry.

This time, we will talk about apps and websites that can help you not only track your habits and your goals but do so in a very fun way. Some ideas to keep in mind when you’re looking at technology is, first of all, make sure it’s from a reliable company that will live on. I have invested energy into apps before, and the apps closed. Now some of them are okay. I used to keep track of all my lists in Wunderlist. These are all my to-do lists and everything else. They closed up shop when they got bought up by Microsoft. It took me a couple of hours, and I moved on to my goals over. But when you’re talking about something more thorough, like a journaling app, like Day One or something like that, where you’re going to put years’ worth of data in it, it matters that you know that these are people who are invested in this technology. They’re not just some person working on a college program who wrote an app, and three years later, it’s going to be out of existence because they refuse to update it. So, you want to make sure it’s from a company or a person who’s just dedicated to doing this, and it will live on. You also want to make sure that it’s securely written and that whatever app or technology you’re using is not stealing data from you or leaking your data out into the dark web somewhere. You have to make sure that the cost or subscriptions work for you. Some of these are expensive, and I was interested in using a couple of apps. Honestly, their subscription prices are way too high for what you get. Making sure that the money works for you, too, so you don’t want to have a million subscriptions lying around that you’re not using. The last one, which is just one of the most important things when using technology to help you track habits and goals, is that you’ll use it. Is it in a format you’ll use that you like and that you want to use? That’s important. I was that person who bought a Franklin Covey planner way back in the 90s, and I hauled that thing around, all 50 pounds of it, everywhere I went. I barely used it. Year after year, new Covey planner! I used it for a while, and I gave up on it. Next year, new Covey planner! I barely used it! You have to make sure that it is something that you want to use, or it’s just a waste.

When it comes to other habits, goals, projects, I use Todoist to-do list is a cross-platform application, meaning it goes on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android. You can use it to track everything from your projects. I have looked after when I’m supposed to do my recycling my basement project, which I put in my “parking lot,” and other “parking lot” projects that I have that I mean to work on. I track all these things, and Todoist tries to make it a little more fun by adding a feature called the “Karma Feature,” which allows you to visualize and improve your productivity. You get points when you accomplish your specific goals and then gain individual rankings within the system. And if you don’t do your tasks, you lose points. There are so many integrations like If This Then Than That can help you create tasks from other things. It has different ways of setting up your goals and your habits, and your plans. So they’re either daily tasks or long-term projects. I posted this fellow’s YouTube channel in the show notes. This guy is a power user when it comes to Todoist. He tracks everything with it and uses it every day. You can just drop in and watch one of his videos. Maybe about how to create a daily habit tracker, on Todoist, takes you 20 minutes, and he’ll show you exactly how to do it. But it’s a great app when it comes to tracking the things you want to get done.

https://todoist.com

Other people like an app called Things 3 that is very popular with Mac users, and they say it just has such a wonderful interface.

https://culturedcode.com/things/

Bounty Tasker is an RPG style game that tries to make it fun to do normal tasks. It’s a way of adding rewards and games to normal things.

https://tasktopia.io/

I’m a big fan of technology that will pester me and remind me. “Hey, you didn’t do this yet. Remember, you want to do this! You should do that.” While Todoist, this is great because it has reminders that you can set up. It’s only the single reminders that are out there. There are other apps that will pester you as much as you want to be pestered all day long. The first one is called Streaks. It is an app that you set up. It’s either available for Mac or iOS. It’s pretty, and it has these big, colorful buttons. You indicate how many times a week you want to do something or how many times a month you want to do something. You put it in a time range. You give it a name; you give it an icon. And then it pesters you to do your task. It works on your Apple Watch. It works on your phones. It’s easy to check off. It’s a straightforward tracking program that’s out there. It gives you some charts. It works well. This is the pestering app that I have consistently used for a long time. They have another app called Streaks Workout, which is what it just sounds like. It’s the same thing as Streaks, except it’s more geared towards exercises. It will look at health data integration to know if you’re doing it or not doing it. These two apps are great for me again because I have in the past made things too complicated. They’re simple and easy. So I have now favored those particular apps.

https://streaksapp.com/

https://streaksworkout.com/

There’s another one out there called Habit Minder. It has a similar type of tracking, but it’s more of a list view, which means you can have many more than the Streaks app. It is much more aggressive in its pestering, which I appreciate. So when I get up in the morning, all of a sudden, this app is firing off. Hey, you wanted to do squats today. Don’t forget your recycling’s do today. Don’t forget; you wanted to do this today. And it’s right there at the beginning of the day, and midway through the day, reminding me to do the things that I wanted to do. All these things you’re putting in the app are things you want to do. These are your goals, and it’s not pushing you into something it wants you to do. It’s great that it has a lot of great notifications.

https://habitminder.com/

The app that I used before Streaks is called Productive, and it has a really friendly interface. It had really improved and invested in his application since the few years when I started using Streaks. It starts off by asking you questions about your goals and habits, and where you fall down. And then it creates the goals for you in this easy-to-read way. It’s a little bit like Streaks or Habit Minder, where you check them off as you do them. It has charts like the other programs to tell you how your streaks are going and if you keep on doing it. But this one’s interesting. They created something called “Challenges.” So you can challenge yourself to follow, in its suggestion, a bedtime routine, where you set out tomorrow’s clothes, you pack tomorrow’s lunch, you go to bed at a certain time. And you check off when you do those things. It gives you some kind of an app reward. “Hurrah! You did it!” when you’ve completed your challenge. So it’s encouraging you not just to complete your task. It’s rewarding you by asking you to challenge yourself to something more exciting. It suggests challenges, but you can also make your own challenges and combine them with different individual habits that build-up towards that challenging goal. I was impressed with what I saw.

https://www.productive.io/ah

Stickk was created by Yale University and is based on Richard Thalers’ research into a human commitment to habits. And the idea is that you sign a contract with yourself with a penalty in place. If you don’t complete this goal, you can bet money, and you can invite your friends to see your progress on it. It was meant to be a very psychological way of tracking habits. In some of the reviews, I noticed that there are bugs that have been plaguing it, so it seems to be struggling a bit right at this moment.

https://www.stickk.com/

There’s another app called Beeminder, and I will tell you, they were the ultimate pestering app. It is a habit tracker where you put money on whether or not you’re going to do your habit. If you don’t do what you say you’re going to do, it charges your credit card; whatever bet you put on you do it. It’s supposed to scare you, or at least make you pay for missing out on your habits. It also has, as I mentioned, a series of reminders on there. I think I signed up without putting money on it a while ago for certain habits. I haven’t used it or tried it in five years. It’s still reminding me about my habits, even though I stopped using it. But it tries to do everything it can, including money loss, to get you to do the thing that you’re trying to do.

https://www.beeminder.com/

There is an app called Coach.me, and the website is Coach.me. It’s interesting. It’s a very simple habit tracking app or website, and you go on there, and you say you indicate that you did your desired habit. So you sign up with these various goals in mind. You want to meditate every day. You want to exercise every day. You want to stop eating sugar.  Whatever it is you want to do.  Each thing has a community of users out there that also picked that habit, and they can cheer you on, and you can share with other people, and it’s meant to help you. The interesting thing about Coach.me is that you can hire a coach who lives somewhere in the world that will help you keep accountable with your goals. You have to make sure that person knows what they’re talking about. I had one person, and she was fantastic. She was a certified exercise person, but she wasn’t very good at holding me accountable. And then I had this other person that I tried for a while. Some of these coaches start at around $15 a month for you to do this. She didn’t know a thing about exercise. It was hilarious. She would suggest things to me, and I’m sure she was not correct about any of the things she suggested. But I didn’t really feel like I needed knowledge coaching. I just wanted someone to hold me accountable. She was very good at that. She’d contact me. She would cheer me on. We’d have these chat sessions on the app itself. And she was really encouraging. She was really good at accountability. And she was just very enthusiastic. That’s the real thing about Coach.me. If you can find someone on there who’s a good coach and really knows what they’re doing or is able to get at the thing you’re trying to get at. It’s amazing. If you can’t find the right person. It’s really subpar. But there’s everything from business coaches, writing coaches, life coaching, and fitness people. You can find all sorts of different people on there. And so I think it’s worth looking at.

https://www.coach.me/

If you’re talking about fitness, there’s many great fitness apps out there that I’ll pester you. That will remind you. The Apple Watch, which I have, and I absolutely love helps me keep track of fitness, is top of my list of something that I have. There’s also Google Fit. There’s Fitbit. There’s a lot of different bands out there that are there to help remind you to exercise. I think they’re great. There is a price point in there and making sure you can afford it is that’s important.

https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-fitness-tracker/

But then some apps can just live on your phone or your watch, like Strava, Map My Fitness. There’s a lot of these fitness apps out there that will help you keep accountable and track when you do the task and when you don’t. It will track your improvements. When you’re looking at fitness, and you’re looking at something like weight loss. Having these other non-weight, non-fitness goals is great and keeping you accountable and excited about your plans. If you’re not losing weight, but you see that you’re raising your bike speed every week, and you’re getting faster and faster and longer rides. That’s exciting all by itself. I remember at one point, I was just dedicated to my Garmin watch. I noticed at one point that on this trail I hike, which is this real steep climb, my heart rate wasn’t going down. But I realized I was looking at the wrong stat. It was usually taking me 90 minutes to climb this steep hill that I was now doing it in 18 minutes what it used to take me 90 minutes. My heart rate was up, but I was booking it right up that cliff. It was amazing.  Having that kind of excitement about other stats can be very encouraging. And it’s another thing that you can track using technology that’s a little bit harder to track when using paper methods. Finding a fitness app that you like will track things for you that will pester you and show you your improvements. That is not only a great way of reminding you about your habits but making it more fun than you imagined you could do.

https://www.mapmyfitness.com/

https://www.strava.com/

There’s a website, and they also have an app from a guy named Steve Kamb. If you don’t know him, he’s kind of an internet personality. He lost a lot of weight, and he was a real nerdy guy. And I’m a real nerdy girl, so I appreciate it. But he has a website called Nerd Fitness. There is just a ton of free stuff and free challenges on there. And it’s all like a nerd language. Quests! You have this epic quest to beat this monster, build your character just like you would if you were playing Dungeons and Dragons. And then there’s this quest system that you go in, and it says, Oh, I did a push-up. I did five push-ups. And you’re doing these challenges, and you get these awards and all these things for it. So it’s nerdy, but he has something that’s called Nerd Fitness Prime. There’s a whole community, and there’s an app. It does cost money. There are all sorts of challenges out there, like run a 5k. You can join these teams to work on things together, all in this sort of role-playing game. But it’s another great way of tracking to make sure that you’re doing what you say you want to do.

There’s something called have Habitca, a role-playing video game, and tries to take these challenges by turning them into a game. You win this piece of armor. You’ve finished this particular quest. You can invite friends in and do quests with them. It’s meant to be a game for people like me who love nerd things and tries to make it more of a game. It’s really impressive. And it does have a fee, but it didn’t strike me as being too expensive.

https://habitica.com/static/home

Some fun things that I’ve done that’ll allow me to track my fitness online in a fun way are a couple of Oculus fitness apps. One of them is called Holodia, which will enable you to have virtual races on the screen. It’s incredible. The other one is VZfit, which also allows you to race around the world and then keeps track of how many miles you have and then send you a list of what you biked or elliptical every week you can keep track of it. It’s really fun, and an exciting way of staying fit.

https://www.vzfit.com/

https://fitxr.com/

Yes.fit is a virtual fitness event company. I did a virtual race in Ireland one year. You see pictures of where you are. You can see what the road looks like and what the scenery around you looks like. And some of the challenges have shirts or medals that you can get for accomplishing those goals. And as they say it, you can run, walk, crawl, dance, and they will count it. You can either track with your fitness watch or app or just enter the miles manually if you don’t want to use any digital methods. Yes.fit is well organized with plan challenges. Don’t feel like you have to race. This is just about challenging yourself and getting it done.

https://yes.fit/

There is something else called myvirtualmission.com, and you create these challenges. It’s primarily running and biking. You want to run a 5k.  It’s is similar to Yes.fit.  But in this case, you can also create your own challenges. It’s fun, and it’s great to do with the team. I think this would be something that would be great for a company to do. So those are just some ways of keeping track of habits and exercise.

https://www.myvirtualmission.com/

This was a big eye-opener for me doing this podcast episode—a lot of these apps I’ve used in the past. And now, looking at them again, they’ve come a long way and matured as tracking methods for habits. I’m impressed with what they’ve done. So many of them come so far. And I think I’m going to revisit some of the ones I used to use but stopped using since then. But here’s the danger point. I should not pick too many methods. We could get overwhelmed by using this app and that app, and then we’re not using any of them well. I will have to decide what I’m going to use and then pare down to not be overwhelmed.

Summary

  1. Find technology to help you achieve your goals and your tasks. Make sure that they’re from reliable companies that update their technology and keep it safe. Pick something that will be around so that you can accomplish your goals
  2. Find technology to help you achieve your goals and your tasks. Make sure that they’re from reliable companies that update their technology and keep it safe. Pick something that will be around so that you can accomplish your goals
  3. Find technology to help you achieve your goals and your tasks. Make sure that they’re from reliable companies that update their technology and keep it safe. Pick something that will be around so that you can accomplish your goals
  4. Find technology to help you achieve your goals and your tasks. Make sure that they’re from reliable companies that update their technology and keep it safe. Pick something that will be around so that you can accomplish your goals

Challenge

Pick at least one technology app that will help you to achieve your goals. Try it out, look at some of the more creative apps that are out there that offer a bit of fun and creativity along with your challenges.

Now for our fun movie quote:

“Don’t ever let somebody tell you … you can’t do something. Not even me. All right? You got a dream … You gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves. They wanna tell you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period.”

That was Will Smith in the Pursuit of Happiness. It’s a good piece of advice, but a little bit iffy, to be honest. You should fight for your dreams. But that also means that your dreams are possible and are something that you can accomplish and are something worth your time and effort. So while it’s good advice to fight for the things that you want to do, and to protect your dreams, make sure that they’re the right dreams at the right time.

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