Given the New Year just started I decided to install a new Habit Tracker on my phone.    I’ve used them before but it had been about a year ago (clearly I didn’t use it very well) and I figured I would see what was available.  After doing some research through Lifehacker.com (one of my favorite sites)  I found that they recommended HabitBull as one of their favorites.  I downloaded it to my phone and got started making some good habits.

I knew I wanted to add the following habits:

• Meditate in the morning
• Take a self-inventory at night
• Do planks and crunches in the morning
• Write at least 100 words on my blog per day

I found the app pretty intuitive and easy to navigate.  It was easy to add several different habits to keep track of.  Below are the steps I took to add two different types of habits to track.

 

 

To add my morning meditation habit I clicked on the “Add” icon at the top which brought me to an Add Habit screen.  I selected the Habit Category of Self Improvement and then selected Meditation for the Habit Type I left it at Yes/No.  I added the Habit Name as Morning Meditation, left all of the other settings as the defaults and clicked on Done at the top.  The app then went back to the main screen and it had my new Habit – Morning Meditation at the top as one of the drop-downs.  Since my first three habits: meditate in the morning, take a self-inventory at night, and do planks and crunches in the morning, were all Boolean events, I can add them the same way.

Next I wanted to add my blog habit.  However, rather than have a Boolean event (either completed or not completed), I wanted to actually put the amount of words that I completed for my blog each day.  That way I could track the amount of words written, see trends, etc.  Also, it’s amazing how it works when I only commit to write 100 words.  It’s not a daunting task to write 100 words as opposed to a whole blog article, but I’ve found that once I start writing I usually write far more than 100.  The trick is to not get overwhelmed with starting the task, which the 100 words goal does…  To add the blog habit I clicked on the Add icon.  In the Habit Category I selected Work & Study and then Writing. In the Habit Type I selected With a Number.  In the Habit Name i added Blog / Website.  I then went to When is a day Successful and added 100 in the blank before words.  I then clicked on Done in the upper right-hand corner and my habit was added.

The app has several different options for viewing statistics.  Below are just a few of the screens.  I can see the streak that I have been on for each habit, the max streak, and the success ratio, among others.

 

 

 

 

Overall I’m impressed with it.  I’ve only been using it for a few days but I really look forward to marking off each habit as I complete it which helps with my motivation to keep completing the habits every day.