Goals and habits: small steps in the directions that matter
Themes tied to your values, habits you tick on the days you do them, and one-off things you tick once. Built for steady progress, not perfect streaks.
Directions and destinations
A value is a direction, like health, family or courage. You never finish it; you just keep stepping that way (Harris, ACT). A goal is a destination you can reach and tick off. Goals in the app sit inside themes, and a theme is a direction you link to your values.
- Theme: a direction, such as "Health". Link it to the values it serves and finish the line "I'm someone who…". Each tick counts towards that person (James Clear).
- A habit to build: something you want to become automatic, like a protein breakfast. You tick it on the days you do it.
- A thing to do once: a milestone, like booking the physio. You tick it once, and it's done.
Make it something you can tick
A good goal is SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. The letters light up as you fill the goal in. Two things help most:
- Say when and where. "After I make coffee, in the kitchen, I'll make eggs." Plans in this "when X, I will Y" form roughly double follow-through in studies (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 200638002-1)). Tying the new habit to one you already have is called habit stacking (James Clear).
- Keep it small enough for a bad day. You can make it bigger once it sticks.
How long a habit takes
In the best-known study, a new daily habit took 66 days on average to feel automatic, and anywhere from 18 to 254 days depending on the person and the habit (Lally et al., 2010). "21 days" is a myth. That's why a habit's default length is 66 days. When the time is up, the app asks whether it feels established, or whether to give it two more weeks. You can call it established before then too, whenever it feels like part of you.
Missing a day is fine
The same study found that missing one day didn't affect forming the habit. So the app doesn't treat a missed day as failure:
- Strength, not a fragile streak. Habit strength is a slow average of how well your last few weeks met the target. Days you do it pull it up, and a missed day lets it dip a little. One miss never sends it back to zero.
- Never miss twice. For a daily habit, the "days running" count survives a single missed day. Only two misses in a row end the run.
- Rest days. Tap a day in the habit's week a second time to mark it a rest day. Rest days don't count against you.
- Fewer days a week counts in full. For a three-days-a-week habit, three days in a week is everything you set out to do.
Research on streaks found that pointing out a broken streak makes people more likely to give up altogether (INSEAD). So the app never mentions one.
Runs, and starting again
If you switch on Habit runs (Settings → Trying out), each habit shows its run beside it while it's going, such as "6 days running" or "3 weeks running". A tick that keeps a run going says so. A few runs get a bigger moment: a week, a month, and day 66.
The tick that matters most is the one after a gap. Coming back after a day off gets "Back on it", and the run carries on. Coming back after a longer gap gets a welcome, however long it's been. Getting back up is the habit underneath all the others, so the app makes the most of it. A run that ended is never counted or shown.
Morning and evening check-ins
If you switch on Morning and evening check-ins (Settings → Trying out), a small button beside the wheel offers a short one in the morning and another in the evening. Every question is optional.
- Morning, about a minute: "Today, I will…" and the day's habits with their when-and-where.
- Evening, a few minutes: how the day went, what went well (or what you're grateful for), the day's habits, and anything to set down for tomorrow.
Each one picks up from the other. The evening shows the morning's intention, and the next morning shows what you set down the night before. If you miss one, nothing is counted and nothing is said. "Not today", on the first step, puts the invitation away until the next one.
The shelf
Established habits and done things stay on the shelf under their theme, as a record of who you've become. You can also pause a goal, or let it go if it no longer serves the theme. Choosing what to drop is part of living by your values, not a failure.
Try it in the app
- Open Goals and start a theme from one of your values.
- Add one habit, with a when-and-where, small enough for a bad day.
- Tick it off in your check-ins. The day's goals appear on the check-in page, under your scale.
- Once a week, look at the strength bars. When a habit is ready, decide: established, or more time?
Sources
- Lally, P. et al. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology.
- Gollwitzer, P. M. & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis38002-1).
- Silverman, J. & Barasch, A. Consumer streaks are motivating: the key is keeping them alive (INSEAD Knowledge).
- Harris, R. ACT worksheets: values and goals.
- Clear, J. Identity-based habits and Habit stacking.