Habit List

@kaz who made this? I mean, I found the founders' names in the press kit but why did they build this? How did you find out about it?

@imkialikethecar wish I had a good answer :) Hope they'll join the conversation soon: https://twitter.com/HabitList/st...

Habit List was built because my to-do lists and calendars were getting cluttered with repeating items, so I went in search of an app to take care of them. I didn’t find anything that did exactly what I wanted. Many would track your streaks, but only for items you had to do every day. So if you wanted to workout every M-W-F, when you didn't complete your habit on Tuesday your streak would be broken. Not very motivating. Also, I found that a lot of apps had way too much clutter, and simply listed all of your habits in a long list. So you’d have to go through them all and figure out what to do. Every day. Why show your M-W-F workout habit on the weekend? I easily lose focus if I run into resistance, so we worked hard to minimize decision fatigue.

@kaz Thanks for listing us, happy to answer any questions.

@dunlap_scott sure thing, thanks for building a great product!

@isiojeabulu Thanks Isi, hope you get some great streaks going! Also: you should pay for apps :)

@dunlap_scott I really should lol. If I keep finding awesome apps I'll consider

@isiojeabulu @dunlap_scott I was just talking to someone about this. App developers clearly deserve payment for their hard work, but there are so many crappy apps, and we've all been burned before. It's hard to know ahead of time which one app N+1 will be. Curious if you've thought of a "trial period" before you buy? Or do you have any thoughts more generally on why try-before-you-buy seems so prevalent outside the App Store, but seems almost non-existent in mobile?

@staringispolite We have thought about it, and may go that route someday. Apple doesn't offer a true trial option; I wish they did. But for our app, we could limit the number of habits for the free version, and offer IAP to unlock unlimited habits. We're pretty confident that sales would increase. So why haven't we done it yet? One reason is support. Currently we spend about an hour a day on twitter and support emails (and, this time of year we're busier because of new years resolutions). We've heard we can expect a massive increase in downloads if we go free, anywhere from 10x - 50x. While I don't expect support requests would increase proportionately, it would be significant. We're a small 2-man team, and like being able to spend most of our time on product development. So, we'll see. If we go that route I'd be happy to share how it works out.

@helencrozier Love to hear you're still using the app!

@TomasRuta I'd say one of our biggest strengths is the flexible scheduling. You can do specific days (M-W-F), non-specific days (any 4 days per week), or intervals (every other day). With intervals, we also offer ranges as options, such as every 3-5 days. That gives you some slack for habits you want to do regularly, but aren't rigid. One of the biggest issues I had when I was searching for a habit-building app was my streak would often end because I couldn't select the right frequency for different habits. We also allow you to skip items for additional flexibility. So if you go on vacation, or your car breaks down on the way to the gym, or you want to allow a cheat day once a week, there's a way to do that so your streak remains unbroken. Aside from that, we focus on the details. For example, we use color as a sort of heat map for how you're doing. Streaks, completion rates, and stats all range from red (bad), to green (good). Optional habits are gray, which indicates that missing the habit won’t break your streak. The use of color allows you to quickly prioritize your day and get a sense of your overall progress. I'm gonna stop there, because I'm worried I'm getting a bit too salesy.

@Dexwell_ isn't that the best?