The most unique uses of Habitify

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“Dear Habitify,

Thank you so much for creating this amazing app.

It has legitimately changed my life. I’m succeeding at making and breaking habits that I never thought I could and it’s inspiring me to think of new habits to track…”

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I got this feedback on 12th December 2018, when I was busily preparing to launch the big bold 5.0 version.

I stopped all my work and ran through my email list for the rest of the day.

Curious, intrigued, captivated, aroused.

Just a few days later, I find myself sitting in the conference room all day talking with people coming from all walks of life. Students, teachers, designers, developers, CEOs. Black and white. Male and female.

I decided to ask the most loyal customers a simple question: “How did you use Habitify?”

To my surprise, people, and I remember a particular one who has more than 100 habits, shared many ways to use the app that I have never thought of (or actually, intended).

So today, I am sharing them back to you, with the hope that you’ll have a new idea of using Habitify more efficiently.

Habitify as a giant todo list

Admittedly, Habitify is never designed to be a todo list and compared with all the current todo apps on the market, it is never close to being a qualified competitor.

But for Habitify members, especially those who have lots of time-based recurring little tasks that can easily slip off their mind, Habitify proves to be a reliable solution.

I have talked to people who put their whole morning routine in Habitify, like this:

• Wake up at 6 AM
• Make bed
• Meditate
• Brush teeth, floss, and take a cold shower
• Make breakfast
• Water the plants while waiting for the boiled water
• Read the news
• Plan the day
• Get dressed for work (really?)
• Check if lights are turned off
• Check keys and bags
• Door locked (what?)

You see, many of the above habits don’t even need to be on the list (would you wear your pajamas onto the street?)

But here’s their explanation:

First, listing things in steps prevent people from forgetting the small things in between. For example, people often get dressed and then head straight to their garage for work, but they forget all the small things in between like turning lights off, picking car keys, work bags, and locking the door.

Second, putting (obvious) tasks in the flow acts as a trigger for many to do the next (easily forgettable) things. For example, whenever our friend Jack finishes getting dressed, it means he doesn’t need to use the light, so he goes to turn off all the lights in the house as the next step.

Some even go to the extreme by creating a micro-todo list for a specific work routine like this:

Subject: Review and adjust paid marketing (1 hour)

Habit list in Habitify (with reminders)

• 9:00: Check facebook ads daily results
• 9:05: Settle unpaid payments
• 9:10: Check which countries have high CPC/CPI — turn off
• 9:20: Check which ad sets deliver high ROI — duplicate
• 9:30: Create new A/B testing — content & graphic
• 9:40: Send requests to design team for new graphics for ads
• 9:45: Record ads performance for the monthly report

Chinatsu— Marketing Manager and also our member — explains to me that this is what she has to do every single day, and sometimes without the app’s reminders she really messes the order up and in the end, she ends up forgetting a step. Since her e-commerce company earns money based on ads, the number of ads that she has to manage a day can peak to as high as a few hundred. So making a workflow like this not only helps her remember what to do but also limits her time so she won’t indulge too long in this mundane task.

So she created an Area in Habitify named ペイドメディアの確認 (Paid marketing) and add all of these habits inside.

Habitify as a collaborative tool

When writing this, I still haven’t stopped admiring doctor Steve for this innovative use (which I will improve later on)

Steve is a psychologist specialized in ADHD treatment for children. He uses Habitify with his clients to track their performance of very simple tasks (for those who don’t know, here’s what ADHD is and how to cure it)

He and his clients share the same account and password in Habitify, then when the clients come home, they do simple tasks as he instructed (draw a picture every day, brush teeth every day…) and check the habits off when they are done.

“Habitify is most useful when I use it for my remote clients. Since they don’t stay at my clinics for treatment, there’s no way for me to know their progress and give encouragement or instructions on time. That’s where Habitify comes in.”

Taking this idea further, Steve even recommends the clients to take notes every day so he can read how they feel. He then, on the same account, but in his own house, write back his encouragement on the same note so the client, who are usually children, can look and be happy the next day.

I would never ever have thought of this until I talk with Steve. Personally, his idea has triggered me to think very hard about how Habitify can be used by more than an individual.

My rough ideas are, and you can certainly add more:

• For teachers to check up on student’s daily performance or submission of homework
• For family members to check up on each other’s progress and give help when needed
• For company colleagues to compete with each other

Habitify as a daily journal

This is the most common idea people tell me during our talks. Many people (as I recall, more than half of them) have this habit of writing a journal every day, and they choose Habitify as a tool.

Technically you can use Notes in Habitify to note down your thoughts every day.

But the thing that makes people want to resort to it as a journal lies in the availability on multiple platforms, especially Habitify for Mac and Habitify for Web.

Although the note section on those platforms is quite small and underdeveloped, people like typing down on their lap because it’s much faster.

I practice this habit too, but I used it mostly for my gymming habit. Here’s a sample of the gym journal for my habit “Wake up early and exercise” which has just reached 64-day streak:

There are, undoubtedly, many apps out there to track weight lifting sets and reps, and I use them too (personally I recommend Strong App — similarly minimal design and very intuitive) But I still note down the specific exercises that I want to improve, or I can improve. This way, every week, I increase the total volume I lift by 5–10%.

And if you’re thinking “Great, but how can I export my notes?”, then my answer is yes, you can export all your data including notes for each and every single day you have entered.

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How about you? How do you use Habitify to track your habits? Let us know in the comment below!

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