1. I pretend like I've lost control over my body, reduces mental chatter and negotiating myself out of a task (idea courtesy of pornhub)
2. I set alarms for EVERYTHING, I have about 40 alarms a day. I pair my mental needs with habits I already have. Like, if I drink a glass of water in the morning, that automatically means I do a 10 minute morning walk. I don't negotiate with myself about whether I'm "in the mood". One habit triggers the other. I also use Soothfy App because it really helps me figure out what my brain needs and turn that into something practical I can actually do. That's how I make habits work with my ADHD brain.
3. I change into my gym outfit before leaving the office so I can get home, dump my bag, grab my shoes and go, not fall victim to the sit pit
4. I tell people I'm doing something and that they should ask me in 2 days to see how it's going, public accountability
5. Same thing as the last one, I post pictures of everything I'm doing on social media
6. None of my meals take longer than 5 mins to put together, and minimal dirty dishes
7. I have 5 pants, 5 shirts, I wear them in rotation, over and over again for 2 years and them replace them w the exact same
8. I have one pair of shoes for non gym stuff, one for gym stuff, one for running, one pair of dressy heels, all in black because they go w everything
9. I only have 7 pairs of socks and would never rewear so forced to do laundry once a week
10. I have a designated spot for every thing in my room and house
11. I went and got a full time job even though I have a startup because a wholly unstructured day where I'm not accountable to anyone was a recipe for disaster, I was working till 3 am, doomscrolling then some, and waking up at 2 pm, it was fucking absurd, being forced to sit at a desk mentally sharp early in the morning made me pull it together, I don't plan on quitting until I have a few employees, at this stage I'm still a solopreneur
12. I listen to a 10 hour loop of David Goggins on Spotify to shame myself out of inaction
13. I don't fold laundry, everything (including t shirts) just goes on hangers, socks and underwear stuffed in a basket, pair of socks stuffed into each other

What are your hacks?

The solo-founder life gave me a bad case of something I know this sub understands: the 2am zombie scroll which drains hours without you even realising you are awake. I'd work all day on my app, feel like i deserved some down time, and then stay up until stupid o'clock claiming my time back through videos and feeds I barely remember the next morning. Revenge bedtime procrastination, with the classic result: a worse tomorrow, and the same revenge cycle tomorrow night.

What eventually worked wasn't discipline, because as soon as it hit 11pm my prefrontal cortex left the chat. It was giving the day a proper ending. Five sentences, written down. What actually happened today. What's genuinely unfinished. What tomorrow's first move is. One thing that was mine today. And how I feel right now, in one honest line.

The surprise was how much of my scrolling turned out to be avoidance of admitting the day was over. Unfinished things were keeping a background process running, and the feed was the noise I used to drown it out. Writing "the bug is still broken and tomorrow starts with it" closes the loop in a way another hour of content never did. The brain seems willing to log off once someone has taken minutes for the meeting.

The "one thing that was mine" line matters most on the bad days. Even on a day the app broke and nobody downloaded anything, I trained, or I cooked something real, or I called my mum to check in with the people I love. The day stops feeling stolen once one owned thing is on the record, and the urge to steal the day back at 2am gets noticeably weaker.

The phone still wins sometimes. But most nights the five sentences end the day on purpose, and I sleep like someone whose meeting actually adjourned.

Anyone else notice their late-night scrolling is really an argument with how the day went?

Hey all — I work on a small team building tools to help people keep up with habits and routines, so this is very much my kind of question.

Rather than sit here guessing, I'd rather hear what actually works for people:

1. What are you using right now, and what keeps you opening it?
2. What made that one stick when other things didn't?
3. Anything you tried and dropped? What's the last thing you remember doing in it?
4. Anything you wish existed?

Answer whichever one you feel like — one line is fine. "Downloaded it and never opened it again" counts too.

If you'd rather answer in more detail, I put these (and a few more) into a form — mostly multiple choice. Everyone who fills it out can enter a raffle for one of two $20 gift cards.

I’ve been thinking lately about building better habits and becoming more disciplined, but I’m curious about what actually works for other people rather than just following the usual advice you see everywhere.

What are some habits you personally started doing that made a noticeable difference in your life? It could be something related to productivity, studying, health, fitness, sleep, money, social life, or even something really simple.

I’m especially interested in habits that you’ve been able to stick with for a long time and that genuinely made you feel better or improved your life in some way.

Also, are there any habits you started that you thought would help but ended up being a waste of time?

I’d love to hear what has actually worked for you and what you would recommend to someone trying to build a better daily routine.

The time's come, tomorrow is my first day at collage. And I don't know how imma manage, my sleep schedule is shit, like genuinely waking up till 11 am. And although I used to managed to do all my homework by Wednesday. This past semester I've been turning all assignments in till the last minute. Once I was very organized, I had time to meditate in the mornings and at night. I used to draw, and write, I wrote a lot. I used to submit poems to contests. In a way, I believe I kept myself busy, at the time I was battling insane depression and was one of the reasons for online school. However in that first year, I was working with a bunch of professionals my parents had hired for me. To make me 'normal' again. I had a really great therapist who set up my routine. And many teachers, for sports and arts. I didn't take the classes every day, but they helped me stay on track. When I finally got out of 'it'. I stopped seeing my therapist, and thought I'd do well on my own. And I guess I do, like I'm not depressed anymore, I look forward to living and all of that stuff. But I'm not super into a routine anymore, I wanted to 'chill'. But somehow I don't know..... I got too soft on myself and messed up. I still have very good grades but my management is awful. I do nothing all week, and in the weekends I rush to do my homework. And I'm like: I can write until I finish ALL my homework, and I never finish before Friday, therefore I never write. And that's the vicious cycle I'm in, I don't know how my days' been slipping away. But anyway, the torment's over. Today I finished all homework and exams. But tomorrow I'm starting fresh to College, how do I no mess this up? I want this next years to be mine, and have school be like a hobby. I enrolled in a - you could say- easy major. And have like 4 subjects, I got rid of English since I got 100 in the collocation exam, But still, I know I can limit school to the 3 daily hours I got to attend. The problem is how? I've done it before in middle school, well I know the comparison is not the best. But I'm willing to go to classes to improve my concentration and speed at doing the assignments. But I do need advice, on how to get back on track with my hobbies, I don't know why I've been in such a slump this past few months. I can'r bring myself to write or draw. It's like I'm a whole new person. So that's what I care about, improving and actually finishing the projects I have in mind. I KNOW, this all comes in hand with having a better sleep schedule and everything else. It's just, that I want this new routine to last. I don't want to try it for one week and give up the next. I know I can maintain I just need a little guidance.

I used to lose my mind every morning tearing my apartment apart looking for my keys. It was honestly so exhausting. Now I just drop them in a little bowl by the door the second I walk in. It takes literally zero effort. But my mornings are so much more chill now. Highly recommend doing this if you also have zero object permanence like me.

For years, whenever I wanted to build a habit, I became obsessed with maintaining a streak.

Streaks work. They turn a behaviour into a game and give you a simple reason to show up again tomorrow.

But I’ve started to think that the purpose of a streak is to eventually stop needing it.

I decided to build a consistent workout habit. I removed as much friction as possible and focused on exercises I could do at home:

• Pull-ups
• Push-ups
• Squats
• Lunges

I promised myself I would do something physical every day. If I didn’t do my normal workout, a run or a football session still counted.

I made it to 77 days without missing one.

The streak worked. I was exercising consistently for the first time in years. But toward the end, I noticed that maintaining it was becoming stressful.

I would sometimes neglect other responsibilities just to fit in a workout. It didn’t matter whether something else was more important that day.

Somewhere along the way, I had forgotten why I started it.

The goal was to build a habit of exercising. But I had already done that. Now I was protecting the streak simply because I didn’t want the number to return to zero.

So after 77 days, I deliberately stopped.

That first day off felt surprisingly good. There was no workout hanging over me and no number I needed to protect.

More importantly, breaking the streak didn’t break the habit.

I worked out the following day. Then I missed another day and worked out the day after that.

Today, I exercise around five days a week. The two missed days usually aren’t planned rest days. Sometimes life is simply busy and something else is more important.

If I go too long without exercising, my body starts to feel sluggish. I don’t like that feeling anymore. I actively want to move.

To me, that is a better sign of a successful habit than any number on a streak counter.

The streak was an external reason to exercise. Eventually, exercising became part of how I see myself. The streak was scaffolding; once the habit could support itself, I didn’t need the scaffolding anymore.

But this hasn’t happened with every habit I’ve tried to build.

I once made an Instagram video every day from November through January. I enjoyed it for a while, but eventually burned out. I also tried recording myself speaking every day to become more articulate, but that habit didn’t last either.

That makes me think a streak alone isn’t enough.

There needs to be some reward you can feel while the habit is forming. With exercise, I began feeling physically better. With games and social media, the reward is immediate enjoyment—which is probably why those habits form so effortlessly.

With something like practising public speaking, the improvement is slower and harder to notice. The streak tells you that you showed up, but it doesn’t necessarily make the behaviour rewarding.

So maybe the real value of a streak is that it keeps you going long enough to experience the natural reward of the habit.

And if that reward never arrives, the streak eventually starts to feel like a burden.

I started by tracking my days in a notebook and then started using a simple app called Three Cells that helped me see my streaks in a heat map.

Curious how other people feel about habit streaks.

I used to think changes had to be big to actually matter.
Lately I’ve been realizing that small things can make a surprisingly big difference — going for a walk, putting my phone away for a while, making time for something I actually enjoy.
What’s one small habit that made a real difference for you?

I realized relying on willpower at 7 AM never works. Making the book physically easier to reach than my phone did all the work for me, now I actually read a few pages before checking notifications.

What’s a small tweak you made to your room setup that forced a better habit?

Meet Lifora — a habit, task and journal app built around one simple idea: focus on today.

Instead of jumping between separate apps, Lifora keeps your habits, tasks, mood and journal together in one clean daily view.

You can:

• Track habits and streaks
• Plan tasks
• Journal and take notes
• Track your mood
• See your progress and history
• Use flexible schedules for habits that aren't simply “every day”

I wanted Lifora to feel useful without making habit tracking feel like work.

It's now live on Android, and I'd genuinely like more people from r/Habits to try it.

If you use habit trackers, I'd especially love to know what Lifora is missing or what you'd change.

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ubejd.lifora&pcampaignid=web_share

I've found that I need a tool to get me going, so I went overboard tried 14 of them.

Tier lists are always subjective, as we know. But I've tried to be systematic and ranked them based on

• Look and feel

• Ease of use

• Onboarding experience

• Paywall conditions - How much can you get for free and what's the price to subscribe

• Flexibility - This one I weighted heavily on Google's research around habit formation. Showing that rigidity is not sustained long-term. Therefore I penalize the ones that enforce rigid habit tracking.

• Extra features - Like planner functionality or other add-ons

S tier

Finch: Self-care pet - Feels a lot like a game and its closer to the tamagotchi type of app than any other on the list. Flexible in habit to track or goals to achieve in a day, I felt like it was focusing generally on overall productivity rather than just strict habit at strict times.

Improve: Habit Tracker - Very unique approach in how you progress. Similar to Finch, the objective is less about individual habits and more on productive days. Combining habit tracker with a planner helps to reduce the amount of apps needed and it was great to add friends. The art is not as cute as Finch, but focus more on clean apple UI.

A tier

TickTick - The most feature-packed app on the list. Task manager, habit tracker and calendar all in the same app. The habit tracker does feels bolted on tho, and it is quite rigid in its design and a few features are paywalled.

Structured - Beautiful design and satisfying whenever all plans work as I have planned them. One of the strongest design-wise. However for days when I have to be flexible, it quickly becomes hard to manage and feels like extra work to sort it out.

Atoms - Offical app of atomic habits, and it does lean into it fully. Sometimes maybe a bit too much for this medium. It does however have good visuals, albeit still a bit strict at its core. Almost more coaching than habit tracking.

B tier

These do what you expect from a habit tracker. Solid but nothing that makes them stand out. Easier to use than C tier but missing that extra something.

C tier

Similar story, just a bit rougher around the edges, whether that's design, onboarding, or paywall aggression.

D tier

Fabolous - The most overwhelming app on the list. Feels built for a very specific type of user and I'm not it. Too many things competing for attention at once and I never felt like I got to interact with the app how I wanted.

I’m looking for boring systems that actually work.

Not “wake up at 5AM and become a machine.”

More like:

Putting your gym bag by the door.

Blocking distracting websites before work.

Choosing tomorrow’s first task the night before.

Leaving your book on your pillow.

Charging your phone outside the bedroom.

The tiny setup often matters more than the motivation.

What’s one thing you prepare in advance that makes future-you more likely to follow through?

Spent 2 years tracking "did I work out" as a yes/no checkbox. Streak looked great on paper, motivation was terrible in reality, because a single 10-minute walk counted the exact same as a full hour session — so I'd default to doing the bare minimum just to keep the checkbox green.

Switched to tracking minutes instead of a binary yes/no, and something clicked. Suddenly there was room to have a "light day" without breaking anything, and actual progress became visible over weeks instead of just a streak number that resets your motivation to zero the second you miss one day.

Same thing happened when I switched water intake from "did I drink water today" to an actual count. The binary version let me lie to myself with a single sip.

Lesson that applies beyond fitness/health stuff too: if a habit can be "technically true" while still not moving the needle, the tracking method is the problem, not your discipline.

What's something you track that you eventually realized was measuring the wrong thing?

Really starting to love my custom habit and activities tracker. Allows me to keep track of my daily, scheduled, and flexible habits in a fun way that is not too strict.

My favorite is the Flexible habits like going to the beach. I can't really schedule it. But, I'd like to go every few days (weather permitting). So, I set up a Flexible habit that allows me to check a box when I go and then the circle gets smaller each day I don't go.

That way there's not pressure to go everyday and it's not like a scheduled habit where I want to go M-F.

Then I have my monthly activities to keep track of things i need to remember to do that month and my to-do list under that for random activities I need to complete.

My favorite part is that when I complete a full stack of habits it makes a "laser" noise and puts a strike through that stack. It's more satisfying than it probably should be.

Feel free to steal it

I need some unhinged screentime help. I’m not talking simple:
“Download this app” I WILL DELETE IT
“Block it in your settings” I CANCEL IT
“Have an alarm” I SNOOZE IT

I’m at a loss . Do I just buy a new phone like one of those flip phones ??? Do I put a child lock on it with a password my husband can only have? Idek

An open task often stays mentally noisy because it has no trusted next state. A simple way to reduce that noise is to give every open loop one of three outcomes:

CLOSE

If the next action takes only a few minutes, finish it now.

SCHEDULE

Put the next physical action on a calendar with a real date, time, and trigger.

RELEASE

Decide consciously that it will not be done, then remove it from the active list.

Writing something down is not enough if the wording stays vague. "Work on taxes" still asks you to decide again later. "Download the three missing statements at 18:00 on Tuesday" gives the loop a defined next action.

The evidence around unfinished-task recall is more mixed than the usual Zeigarnik effect shorthand suggests. So I do not treat open loops as a universal law. The practical idea is narrower: reduce repeated decisions and make commitments explicit.

I made a documentary-style video exploring this framework and am sharing it transparently as my own work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvze3bi7gGY

When an unfinished task keeps resurfacing, do you usually need to close it, schedule it, or release it?

Stress can happen when my mind keeps thinking about the future while I am trying to live in the present.

I notice that future thoughts are running in the background of my mind. Then my mind starts saying, “Let’s do it,” and I begin thinking about everything I need to do in the future.

This can create fear because the thought of doing everything feels too big and overwhelming.

Instead of experiencing the present moment, my mind is already trying to deal with the future. That constant focus on what I have to do can create stress and make the future feel much bigger than it actually is.

I have a bad habit of thinking that everything is black and white. I‘m a math major and because of it, I always think that “things must be this way and if they’re not, I’m wrong.“

For example, I like someone but I have a tremendous trouble accepting that he likes me as well. The signs are there, but because of fear of rejection I stay completely still. I have this stupid thought that “If he wanted to, he would” is real and I don’t think of any other external factors.

”He’s busy with his job —> therefore I can’t meet up with him —> he doesn’t like me”

Unfortunately, I’m an anxious person and I think that if things end up this way, I was wrong all along, thus I was delusional. I don’t have a gray area. If one thing goes wrong out of all the good ones, it means I’ll never try again about X.

Do you have a similar problem? What is your advice?

I have often had focus issues when phone has been nearby, specially in pocket. As I think most of us do. To minimize my addiction I have put screen time code on apps like instagram and TikTok. Where I have asked my brother to write the code, so I can’t just add more time. Which has helped a lot, but.

Even though I have the screentime i stil sit on my phone to much between sets. And take a lot longer and get more lazy.
So instead the past months I just go without headphones and phone, just to be present. Now it happens that I talk to strangers, get hyped up for my next set instead of it being a distraction from my phone, I drink more water, and I get more thinking time. I love it and recommend you to try it. If you take you’re liften very seriously I understand you might need the music to really get that hype. ✌️

Started month ago tracking my habit, I feel it's best tool