Anyone tried using a chain calendar? I used an app that tracked how many days in a row I meditated and that's the first time in my life I was able to do a good habit consistently for 15 days straight. I didn't want to break the chain!
Later I used the same idea for studying every day, started with a few minutes and worked it up slowly. Eventually, I was able to concentrate for long periods of time. That sense of momentum and progress is very encouraging.
I thought about doing the chains, but I was always held back by the thought of having to break the chain for legit reasons. For example I'm currently practicing guitar, so I'd create a chain for that. But there are legit reasons why I can not play at a given day, I might not be able to access a Guitar because Im in a Hotel in a different country, or a myriad of other reasons.
So cheat! If you use a physical calendar, you can mark those days with another symbol, like an arrow to show that the chain carries on. If you use an app, you can mark the day anyway, knowing that you had a legitimate reason to skip it.
Think of all the benefits you would get from practicing 95% of the days marked, compared to a much lower percent without the chain. Don't let the 5% or 1% stop you.
As an aside, this is my view of veganism. When I talk to people who say they can't go vegan because they'd miss cheese too much, or kebab, or whatever, I suggest they go vegan and keep eating cheese or kebab. 95% is a lot better than nothing!
That said, I can't do chains. I get anxious after a while carrying a long streak, and will either conveniently forget a day and mess up the streak (and feel relieved), or decide during a streak that I'll stop at 30, or 100, or whatever, just to give me permission to get off the treadmill. I don't like when enjoyable things turn into a chore.
Some apps are nice and let you go back and add marks even if you forgot to do it on the day. Some apps, like Duolingo, let you unlock tokens that protect your streak if you miss a day. But some apps are really strict, which can be annoying if you finish something after midnight and realize that you just broke the chain. My wife had that with a writing app where she finished exactly at midnight, which counted for the next day and her streak was broken.
So if I did a chain, I'd use a text file, or a paper, or send myself an email a day logging that I did the task. I wouldn't trust an extremely rigid app, because, as you say, there can be legitimate reasons why you miss.
>As an aside, this is my view of veganism. When I talk to people who say they can't go vegan because they'd miss cheese too much, or kebab, or whatever, I suggest they go vegan and keep eating cheese or kebab. 95% is a lot better than nothing!
This is pretty much how I'm doing veganism, every meal I make at home is vegan. But I eat the occasional cheese and kebab. But I find myself replacing those with vegan/vegetarian alternatives more and more.
Also do vegan > vegetarian > normal food when going out. Without it becoming annoying. It's really uncommon to find a restaurant with vegan options around here, but vegetarian is pretty common.
I personally don't do chains either, as I really prefer being able to do things spontaneously. I approach the tasks I set for myself that way as well, so I end up doing things like squats when I have some dead minutes to fill in a day.
Basically doing anything is better than doing nothing, and often times you find yourself doing more than what you set out to do.
Rather than creating an unbreakable chain, I have a big calendar on the wall with a big X on days when I exercise. Some weeks I travel (or get lazy) and there is a gap, but I find that gap to be as motivating as the Xs are. I'm on year 3 of doing this and it's still motivating to see the Xs fill the calendar.
Something I learned in, I think, Atomic Habits that helped me with this sort of reasoning:
It's not about that first day to fail to do the thing. It's about the day after.
That is to say, of course your chain will be broken. And probably for entirely rational reasons! The trick is really internalizing that inevitability and not beating yourself up over it. You have to learn to say, "Yes, I got derailed for this period; that's OK, and now I'll get back on track."
By the time you really care about breaking long chain, you might find that you no longer need it as you actually enjoy what you are doing or developed a habit.
Duolingo has streaks built in but it allows you to buy a "Streak freeze" with a virtual currency that you earn by just using the app. When you skip a day, the freeze will be automatically consumed and you have to buy another. You also can't have more than one.
I find this system very effective without being frustrating. Even when you skip a day, you have to at least open the app to buy a new freeze.
We built an app* for this and use it ourselves - it's very effective. I have tasks for working (even a token amount) morning or night on a side project, working on the biggest roadblock task I have, and things like that. The app splits tasks into a "front six" and "back six" so I have six focused on work/business and then six focused on home (reading, trying to learn a language, etc).
I remember at one point having 'walk x steps' and 'read x minutes' as daily tasks, so I'd often be walking around the house while reading just before midnight to make sure I kept my streaks alive.
Came here to suggest Streaks, I've been using it for a few months now. My favorite features are:
- Streaks that track Apple Health data. Really nice job with the integration. I use this for tracking daily calorie, macronutrient, and workout goals.
- "X times per week" streaks. I take rest days from working out, so it's nice to have an abstraction that doesn't treat them as failures or breaking the streak.
I guess I should go give you guys a good app store review now. Thanks for making this!
Thanks! From the start, I found that having an easy-to-reach automatically-tracked Health goal (x,000 steps/day) was a good way to keep you feeling like you were accomplishing something. Went some way towards keeping you on track.
I wish they'd open up the screen time tracking because I'd like to have a Streaks task of keeping my daily screen time under a certain level.
Later I used the same idea for studying every day, started with a few minutes and worked it up slowly. Eventually, I was able to concentrate for long periods of time. That sense of momentum and progress is very encouraging.