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Show HN: Habit streaks suck. Momentum FTW (polarhabits.com)
10 points by merott 1006 days ago
Last year, I realised a fundamental flaw with habit streaks after I broke my 100-day meditation streak.

I stopped meditating altogether because I couldn't find the motivation to start again, from zero.

That's silly!

Why would I think I was starting over from zero? It's not like all that progress I'd made was lost. But, that's how streaks work, so zero it was!

Being an indie hacker, I decided to do something about it, so I invented my own system (and built an app for it.)

I share how the system works in the linked post. I also encourage you to try out the app. It might help you finally stick with that habit!

Would love to hear your thoughts!

3 comments

I like this idea a lot - my friend tracked their exercise streak for 2 years and then one busy day he didn't make his streak and it hit him harder than I would have expected. Momentum feels like a good balance.
Relatable, 100%!
I've been using Polar Habits for the past few months.

Love the flexibility of being able to add goals like "3x a week"

That's just so awesome to hear! :)
Nice idea + execution!

I had a Fitbit and did 10K+ steps every day for 6+ months... until the day I broke my streak.

Thanks… and… damn!

I know how that feels. I had a similar experience with closing the "rings" on my Apple Watch. Kept it up for well over a year, missed one day, and I never found consistency again!

Would love to hear about your experience once you've had a chance to try out the app (if you do.)

I don't do 10K+ steps anymore (didn't notice a big difference after doing it for 6 months, nor after stopping.) But I will try using your app to track my daily exercise routine.

I think a useful feature would be to share your momentum with others. Wordle's share feature keeps some of my family members playing every day. And it's a nice way to get free "viral" marketing ;)