Can’t Habit All

Rebooting is a biweekly newsletter about how we can use technology to take better care of ourselves.

Living with ADHD is a never-ending crash course in damage control against a brain you know is going to fail you from time to time. Without some form of accountability, I’d never check my to-do list, I’d forget to drink enough water or wash my face before bed, and I’d never get started on whatever new side project I’m obsessing over. I can hardly keep track of my thoughts while I’m in conversation, I can’t trust myself to overcome that on my own.

I’ve tried countless ways to combat this persistent forgetfulness, but the best solution for me has been to pester myself with reminders until I just do the dang thing. For the past few months, I’ve been using Streaks, a habit tracking app available for iOS (Android users can check out Habitica for a solid alternative), to help nudge me towards my goals, and even kick some nasty habits.

Streaks let’s you set up habits you’d like to work on, which can be anything from cutting out carbs to calling your parents a couple times a week, and reminds you to follow through as often as you tell the app to. I have it set up for things like remembering to journal every day, take my medication, do some daily mobility work, and dust my apartment once a week.

You can even use Streaks to keep tabs on things you don’t want to do. So if you want to stop biting your nails, sleeping with the TV on, or waiting long enough to send the “oh my gosh I’m so sorry I just saw this” follow-up, you can just create a negative habit within the app and mark it as done every time you go a day without scratching that pesky itch. Generally, I have a strict four-cigarettes-per-year rule, which I save for the worst days. In a good year, I don’t even hit four, but when it’s  a bad year like 2019 was for me, I’ll go way past that and plunge into a nasty chain smoking habit. I’m using the app to try to knock it down to zero in 2020.

I like Streaks because it limits you to 12 habits, which helps my overly ambitious brain from committing to trying to improve too much at once and burning myself out. Without the ability to go overboard, I have to really think about what needs improvement in my life at that exact moment, rather than project some idealized version of myself onto the app and plug in every little thing I would need to do to get there.

The idea isn’t to keep the same habits in there forever, though. You can check the consistency of each habit within Streaks just by tapping each one, to see how many days you’ve stuck to it, and how you’ve done over the last month. Once you’ve made it a part of your routine, and you don’t need your phone to remind you before brushing your teeth, you can delete that habit and tack on a the next destination on your path to improvement.

Unfortunately, you still have to actually do the work, but it’s easier when you’re not playing both personal trainer and client. An app like Streaks or Habitica can serve as your own personal life coach (minus the inspirational self-quotes on Instagram and hefty monthly fee) and tell you what you need to be doing so you can stick to actually getting it done. Over the past few months I’ve been better about cleaning my apartment, staying on top of my journaling, and texting my friends to make sure they’re doing alright.

In the News:

Cooking Is the Ultimate Antidote (Elemental): I’ve really fallen in love with cooking this year. I’ve made tasty pork belly, perfected my jalapeño mac and cheese recipe, and started to experiment with making all sorts of soups. It’s a nice way to calm down and focus on something that isn’t too draining and has an immediate payoff. Like this article points out, I’ve found it to be really helpful in keeping my anxiety at bay and helping me stay grounded in the moment. Plus, nothing beats spending the night in with your partner, tossing ingredients together and then fawning over how tasty it is while you binge another show. 

Managing Your Friendships, With Software (The Atlantic): No matter how much I chastise myself for it, I’ll always be awful at following-up with friends if I don’t have some sort of reminder to keep in touch. I haven’t taken a dive into personal CRMs of any sort, but I do have reminders to say hi to the friends I stay in touch with most, and to reach out to those I haven’t heard from in a while. It’s tough at first, but now I’m hearing from my loved ones more consistently, and even got better about making time for phone calls to stay in touch. If a spreadsheet or a monthly subscription app can make you a better friend or partner, it’s probably worth giving a shot, you never know what delightful conversations may come from just saying hi. 

Something Nice:

Cutthroat Kitchen: I’ve never been a fan of cooking shows, despite my recent foray into the kitchen, but I cannot get enough of Cutthroat Kitchen. Between Alton Brown’s default wackiness, the absurdity of the sabotages in each round, and the frequency at which people seem to forget key ingredients in their dishes, every episode provides a good mix of excitement and laughs, all while providing plenty of ideas for next time the munchies kick in.

As always, if you have any questions, feedback, or just want to say hello, feel free to drop me a line on Twitter.

My thanks to Medea Giordano for editing this issue.