Marco Stojanovic, a psychology researcher at the Bielefeld University in Germany, told me that this kind of automatic routine 'slowly shifts behavior from deliberation to habit.' The regular reminders can 'help build that initial automaticity and act like an extension of our past intent,' he said. Instead, Everyday helped me build a consistent routine. No longer was I playing the piano or scheduling a tennis match with a friend on a whim. This habit loop made the behaviors I wanted to turn into habits more automatic. That visual reward triggers a dopamine response, which pushes me to repeat the habit and grow the streak the next day.Įvery day the author completed his piano goal, the streak grew.

Once I complete the task, I mark it on a calendar in the app and a colorful streak grows. The app works in a simple way: Each day, at the same time, it sends me a reminder to do the habit I'm trying to form (in this case, practice the piano). So I turned to a more minimalistic app called Everyday. To me, though, many of these popular services felt bloated with options, and managing them was a job on its own. While some apps, such as Fabulous, which has about 24 million downloads, seek to support you in establishing elaborate daily routines, others offer radical methods, including forcing you to commit a certain amount of cash to be donated to charity whenever you fail to follow through on your commitments. While I'm pleased with the results, the bells and whistles of these apps left me with a nagging feeling: Was I actually forming a habit or just becoming addicted to the app itself? How much credit could I really give myself? Are there downsides to relying too much on technology? Habit apps hit the sceneĪpps that track your habits have spiked in popularity over the past few years, according to Abe Yousef, a senior analyst at the mobile-analytics firm Sensor Tower. Over the past few weeks of rededicating myself to the piano and tennis, I've missed only two days. The apps are designed to track my progress and motivate me in a variety of ways. So a couple of weeks ago, I decided to turn to tech.Ī new fleet of habit-tracking apps has sprung up to help people like me set up a structured approach to building habits. I didn't have a cue that prompted me to practice or a reward that made me regularly keep coming back for more. A 2009 study from researchers at University College London found that it took an average of 66 days for a habit to stick.Īfter talking to Lindemans, I realized that my attempts to play the piano had included none of these steps. Then you repeat that every day to incorporate it into your routine. The cue - waking up - triggers a response to brush, which leaves you with fresh, minty breath as the reward. Take something like brushing your teeth in the morning. Jan Lindemans, a senior behavioral researcher at Duke University, told me that a habit needed to have four things to last: cue, response, reward, and repetition. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.

Breaking habits app