[inthreedee]

You've got the core concept of the app down, yes. My friend definitely experiences all the things you mentioned, from PDA to not remembering to open a tool/app he's decided to try to use. To work with those issues, I designed the app to be fun so that, even just by opening it, he gets those dopamine hits that his brain needs. Your points count up when you open it, there are subtly pleasing bouncy animations as you interact with it, things are colorful with customizable themes and sounds, there are haptics at just the right moments, etc. The whole thing is designed to make his brain /want/ to open it rather than being a tool he has to /remember/ to open.

As for the habit and reward system, it's similarly designed to be something he wants to use vs has to use because his PDA will immediately kick in and rebel against any kind of forced system. Our built-in tutorial tries to provide enough guidance on this to help you understand what types of habits/rewards could be effective for you and your brain so it doesn't run up against the problems you mentioned. The app does a lot of work to reward you for using the app in support of the habits you want to form without triggering the stuff like PDA that you're trying to avoid triggering. If you end up trying it out and have feedback on ways we can improve this, please do share! We're definitely open to feedback and have already received some good ideas for improving the tutorial from others we've shared this with.

[al_borland]

Thanks for the additional details. You have me curious. I’ll give it a try.

[inthreedee]

You’re welcome, let me know what you think! I’ve also asked that friend of mine for whom the app was originally designed to pop in here when he gets a chance and give you more of his perspective first hand.

It sounds like you and he share a lot of similar struggles. We realized that he wasn’t the only one with these needs so we’re very interested to hear about others’ experiences with the app. Look out for his response later on.