Habits: A New Type of Step

While the existing system of repeating steps worked great for tracking activities as frequently as every day, they fell a little short when it came to actions which need to be tracked on an even more granular level, multiple times per day. That's why we're introducing habits - a new addition to the selection of step types.

Habits have two buttons which let you track either a positive effect (e.g. doing some exercise), or a negative effect (e.g. smoking a cigarette), any number of times per day. Habits appear in a new section at the top of the to-do list, making it easy to log new actions - and each one displays a tally of how well you're doing today.

Just like with any other type of step, we build a log of your actions, and a graph of your history on a habit can be accessed by visiting the step's page. Note that the ability to modify past counts for habits isn't ready yet, so only press the + or - buttons for a habit if you want to log something.

You can turn a step into a habit by clicking the Edit button, and choosing Habit from the list of step types. Here are a few ideas of habits to get you started:

• Avoid smoking: -1 every time you smoke a cigarette.
• Eat healthily: +1 every time you eat something healthy, -1 every time you eat a sugary snack or junk food.
• Read 5 pages - Aim to read more books with a +1 for every 5 pages you read.
• Spend time productively: For example, if you're measuring out your time with the Pomodoro technique, +1 for every pomodoro you complete (25 minutes of uninterrupted work), and -1 for every pomodoro you don't successfully complete.
• Do a set of pushups: Get into the habit of doing regular exercise by logging a +1 every time you can squeeze a set of pushups into your day.