Forming habits can feel like a chore.
Even when you have the best intentions, there are days before a habit really takes hold that you lack motivation. It’s cold outside so you don’t want to go to the gym or you had a long day and would rather order takeout for dinner. You know it might derail your progress to skip a day, but skipping a day is so tempting.
Luckily, tracking your progress can offer the motivation you need to stay on course each day and form that habit. Download one of the best habit-tracker apps on the market to hold you accountable, and let checking off your success day after day encourage you to keep working toward that goal.
What’s habit tracking?
Habit tracking means monitoring your daily behaviors to identify how often and consistently you perform bad or good habits.
For your existing habits, it involves taking stock of what you do routinely — but it also offers a record of your attempts to introduce new behaviors. If you’re trying to cut back on alcohol, you might track how much you drink and when to find patterns and opportunities to limit consumption. Or, if you hope to arrive more punctually to the office, you could record the time you “clock in” every day to figure out what makes you late.
In tracking habits, you’ll start to see patterns and gain insights about your behaviors. This helps you understand the root causes of positive and negative habits. If you track that you drink more than you’d like throughout the week, it might be due to a lack of healthy coping skills or stress management techniques. And if you get to work late every Monday morning, you may discover it’s because you have trouble organizing your time when the Sunday scaries hit.
The importance of habit tracking
To change your self-sabotaging behaviors or reach a goal, habit tracking is key to understanding why you’re excelling or falling short at establishing a habit. Observing that it’s your lack of Sunday night organization and a Monday morning routine that prevents you from arriving at the office on time lets you establish plans that promote punctuality — like laying out your clothes and prepping breakfast the night before.
Another important aspect of habit tracking is that it provides motivation. The American Psychological Association (APA) found that frequently tracking progress toward goals increases your chances of success, especially if you’re physically recording it.
Seeing yourself check off the habit each day, from getting more steps to drinking more water, increases your chances at continuing to succeed. You can manually track your progress toward making or breaking habits by writing notes in a journal or on a calendar — or you can use software that allows you to plug in data to centralize that information.
What are habit tracker apps?
Habit tracker apps allow you to plug in or capture data on your behaviors at a regular cadence. Daily habit trackers on your phone might ask you to check on your progress every day — whether by entering the mileage you ran or hours you studied. Some apps are specialized for certain types of habits, like drinking less or exercising more. But many generic habit trackers let you create custom goals and even monitor progress on several at a time.
Because habit tracker apps have data-crunching power behind them, many provide statistics, graphs, and insights. These insights further encourage behavior changes by helping you find anything slowing you down and removing those obstacles.
Do habit trackers really work?
Researchers who asked student participants to use a tracking app to monitor their study habits found that this software motivates and promotes the automatic repetition of behaviors. These tools also encourage consistency, which is essential to forming a habit. By asking you to check in, providing reminders on doing and tracking your habit, and even sending you motivational messages, habit apps help you form a routine.
That said, you may find that habit-tracking apps don’t work for you. You may prefer tracking behaviors by hand in a journal or on a calendar you hang in a visible place to avoid the stress of too many notifications.
And habit tracking altogether may not be your thing. Perhaps you thrive off working with an accountability partner, helping someone else track their progress toward forming a habit and receiving their support in return. The APA’s research on tracking progress toward goals found that public tracking progress — where someone else could see it — was further motivating. If you aren’t comfortable posting your progress on a leaderboard where your peers can cheer you on, consider checking in with a friend or loved one each week to self-report your advances.
What to look for in a habit-tracking app
As you navigate the world of habit-tracker ideas, the most critical consideration is finding a tool that motivates you and keeps you on track — which looks different for everyone. The following three pointers can guide you toward software that meets your needs.
- Compatibility: Ensure that there’s a version of the app that works with your device. If possible, download the software and familiarize yourself with the features, checking that it’s simple to use.
- Specificity versus flexibility: If you want to build a habit that many others share, like eating a more balanced diet, choose a tracker that focuses on this goal. These tools will have more comprehensive, pointed tools and resources than generalized habit trackers. If you have a unique goal or set of habits you wish to monitor in one app, look for a tool to track several types of progress simultaneously.
- Extras: Many habit trackers don’t just offer a place for you to store data. They contain perks like motivational messages, scholarly articles, support groups, progress graphs, and even guided meditations. Find an app with extra tools that can boost your chances of success.
11 best habit tracker apps
There are countless habit-tracking apps, many of which tout similar features. The selection process is challenging, even if you already know what you’re looking for in this software.
Try experimenting with several apps until you find which works best for you. Use the following list of 11 of the best habit tracker apps on the market to find a starting point — all of which have a standout feature or unique approach that makes them shine.
1. Streaks
Streaks is an award-winning to-do list application that helps you build habits as well. You can track up to 24 habits at once, aiming never to miss a day and keep your “streak” going. This tool, only available for Apple products, links up with your device’s health data, making it a solid choice for habit-seekers tracking physical activity or other fitness goals.
Price: $4.99 a month
2. HabitNow
Android users can enjoy HabitNow, a user-friendly, all-in-one application that helps you set custom goals, manage tasks, and visualize progress. You can organize your life and monitor habits without flipping between a calendar and a habit tracker. The app also offers reminders and alarms to encourage you to check in on your habit formation process.
Price: Free for 7 habits; $9.99 for Premium (one time cost)
3. Way of Life
Way of Life helps you foster healthy habits and kick harmful ones in a unique tool that color codes good and bad trends. This easy-to-use software for Apple and Android allows you to update progress in just a few seconds and spend more time, when you have it, journaling about challenges and achievements. The app also sends targeted motivational messages and charts your progress in clear graphs.
Price: Free for 3 habits; $6.99 for premium
4. Habitify
With a near-perfect rating from Android and iOS users, Habitify has earned its illustrious reputation by keeping people on track by keeping them on schedule. With this tool, you plan daily routines, adding activities that support your habit formation journey. You can also track progress with metrics and celebratory milestones and receive support (and a little friendly competition) from the Habitify community with the app’s Challenges feature.
Price: Free for 15 check-ins a week; $4
5. Habitica
Habitica takes a gamified approach to reaching goals. This free habit tracker app for Apple and Android lets you earn coins for keeping up with positive habits and trade them in for digital pets and magic skills to motivate you on your video-game-style quests. Habitify also has a strong focus on community. When you join, the app helps you team up with people working to form similar habits you can play alongside for accountability. The unique advantage of this app is that it makes habit-building fun — not a chore — and ties your hard work to enjoyment.
Price: Free for basic functions; $4.99-47.99 for various plans and features
6. Strides
If you’re seeking flexibility and the kind of pared-back interface that simplifies visualizing progress, Strides could be for you. This iOS software offers four tracking styles: recording good or bad habits, reaching targets, viewing average activity rates (i.e., how many miles you walk daily), or hitting finite milestones. Plus, you can track numerous goals and set the parameters for each.
Price: $4.99 per month or $29.99 per year
7. Productive
Productive is one of the best subscription tracker apps for Android and iOS users, thanks to its focus on fostering long-spanning change. With a library of customizable templates, Productive allows you to track progress toward goals and habit formation in any area of your life. The application provides statistics and lets you set milestones to celebrate.
You can also boost your success by participating in the software’s challenges, like social media detoxes, that you course with other users.
Price: Free for basic functions; $3.99 per month or $23.99 per year
8. Habit Tracker
If you’re an Apple user who thrives off reading progress reports and celebrating your achievements, Habit Tracker is an excellent choice. Habit Tracker prides itself on its simple tracking interface and visually appealing report, which shows how many of your goals you successfully upheld, your longest habit streaks, and your best day of the week — the one where you met most of your objectives. The app’s monthly habit tracker view also helps you visualize stats for the past few weeks and how they compare to your year-long progress.
Price: Free
9. Notion
If you want complete control over your habit-tracking style, use a customizable template that you tailor to your needs. Notion, the free app, offers a virtual habit tracker template that allows you to set entirely unique goals and visualize daily, weekly, and monthly progress in one place. Track as many habits as you want in a no-frills database that puts you in control of the parameters and viewing style.
Price: Free
10. Everyday
As one of the most straightforward habit trackers out there, Everday is a great no-nonsense goal tracker app to see your progress toward forming habits. On the left, you see a list of your habits, with dates across the top. As you check off more and more days, the color (indicating you’ve succeeded) gets darker. Interruptions are white squares that interrupt your streak. It’s available on all platforms and is perfect for adding healthy habtis to your daily routine.
Price: Free, with in-app purchases ranging from $4.99–29.99
11. Done
Done is a straightforward, color-coding habit tracker for iOS users who crave simplicity. With at-a-glance progress reports, daily or weekly tracking functionalities, and streaks, this software gives you several user-friendly tools to streamline your process — instead of making habit-tracking just one more task in your day. It’s also great if you aren’t only focusing on daily goals, with a simple interface to record if you did or didn’t succeed at doing the task.
Price: Free for three habits; $59.99 a year for Premium to exceed three habits
Forming or breaking a habit can change your life
If you’re getting poor sleep, burning out at work, or having trouble keeping up with loved ones, it might feel like you have no control of your life. While it’s not a fix-all, forming a new habit or ditching a bad one in support of a healthier, more fulfilling existence can help you turn a downtrend around.
Great habits may be hard to establish, and bad ones can feel impossible to break. But it’s possible to get started today. Using one of the best habit tracker apps on the market gives you instant access to proven tools, expert resources, and even community support to make meaningful progress.
Couple your habit tracking with the professional support of a coach, like BetterUp’s specialists, to encourage accountability and meaningful changes. You can use the BetterUp app to take the Whole Person assessment, find a coach, and schedule or join your sessions. Unlock your potential right from your phone.
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