There has never been a year where we:

Needed our healthy and productive routines more
Faced greater distraction and deeper destruction of our normal daily cadence.

Enter the Done app, a flexible and great-looking habit tracker. There are a number of excellent apps in the habit tracker category, and at their core they all use the power of streaks to keep us motivated and moving forward.

It takes 66 days to cement a habit, and streaks can help us get there.

Much has been written about the Snapchat app and its use of streaks. Snapchat built one ofthe worlds’ most popular social media apps on the back of the streaks concept. In Snapchat, you get credit for a “streak day” every time you direct message a particular person--and vice-versa. As the streaks build, the app gives users badges as they reach certain milestones (50 days, 100 days, etc.). Teens don’t want to snap those streaks.

But Snapchat certainly didn’t invent streaks.

Jerry Seinfeld used streaks—analog style—to build his career through a daily writing habit:

He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. But his advice was better than that. He had a gem of a leverage technique he used on himself and you can use it to motivate yourself—even when you don't feel like it.
He revealed a unique calendar system he uses to pressure himself to write. Here's how it works.
He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker
He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain."
"Don't break the chain," he said again for emphasis.

Don’t break the chain. That’s the core feature of any habit tracker, and Done is a good one.

Setting up tracking with Done

Done allows you to set up daily, weekly, or monthly habit goals, and track progress in your actions against those goals.

Done is system-oriented, not goal-oriented. Done invests your in your actions, not outcomes.

Magically, this leads you to better outcomes because you’re focused on and motivated by the things you can control.

Getting started with Habits

Hit the “+” at the bottom of the screen to set up your first habit. You’ll see a screen like this:

Tons of options here. Name your habit, set it up as daily, weekly, or monthly, and the days you’ll performing the habit.

Important: You can also use Done to set up negative habits — days you don’t do something, like drink or smoke , for example. Done can help us eliminate bad habits just as well as helping us build the good ones.

As you scroll, you can assign colors, other options, and assign a habit to a new or existing group.

Setting up Groups

Habits can be grouped into, well, groups that you create. Groups are categorizations of habits and are totally customizable.

The Groups screen looks like this (these are my current groups):

And that’s all there is to set up.

Example: My initial groups and habits

I set up my initial habits into four groups:

The Artist’s Way

The Artist’s Way is a time-tested book and methodology for “unstuckifying” your innate creativity. Within the book are two core habits: the daily Morning Pages and the weekly Artist’s Date, and various exercises you complete for each of 12 weeks. I have four habits set up in my Artist’s Way group:

Morning pages (tracked daily)
Artist’s date (tracked weekly)
Chapter reading (tracked weekly)
Exercises (tracked weekly)

Fitness

Run four or more miles at least three times per week (tracked weekly, with Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday check-ins)
Lift weights three times per week (tracked weekly, with Monday, Wednesday, and Friday check-ins)

Worship

Read the Bible (tracked daily)
Pray (tracked daily)
Attend church (tracked weekly, with a Sunday check-in)

Writing

Journal (tracked daily)
Send newsletter (tracked weekly)

What the Done app isn’t

The Done app is not a project manager. It’s not designed to break a project (writing a book, building a deck) into its component parts, with timelines and interdependencies.

The Done app is not a detailed fitness tracker: Done is great for logging that you *did* work out, but not the details of your workout or your progress vs. your last workout.

Here’s what I mean:

I use Done to log that I met my workout obligation.
I use a Numbers spreadsheet to track my lift exercises, weight, and reps
I use Nike Run Club to track the details of my runs — distance and time.

The Done app helps you stay on track

When you’re finished with initial setup, you’ll have a daily habit screen that looks something like this:

It’s all about the streaks. So get to streaking.

The Done App

Price: free for up to 3 habits, then $8.99 for lifetime access or $18.99 as part of a group of apps.
Look and feel: 5 stars
Customizability: 5 stars

The Done app review: Maintain healthy habits when it’s hard to focus