8 Tools For Building Strong And Effective Habits

Good habits are hard to come by. We have to work to build them, sometimes for long, long periods of time. It’s effort which we – understandably – don’t like to deal with. It’s just so much easier to drift through life with the habits we already have (both the good AND the bad ones).

Aren’t we already good enough? Do we really need to “improve” our habits?

The answer? Yes, we do.

But not because we’re flawed, but because we can be better. All of us. But building better habits doesn’t have to be such a burden, we just need to know where to get the right kind of help.

You need knowledge for building good habits. Habit building requires not only willpower and motivation, but the right knowledge as well. But the thing is, attaining that knowledge requires us to expend that willpower and motivation.

So right off the bat, we’re using the most important sources of habit-building fuel just to get the knowledge to build good habits.

Sure, you could learn how to build strong habits through research and diligence, but not everybody has the time and patience for that. So what do you do instead?

Use technology.

More specifically, use tools/apps designed to build long-lasting habits.

8 Habit Tools to Help Build Strong Habits

These tools take the tedious learning out of building great habits and destroying bad ones as well.

Since there are so many types of habits you could build, it makes sense to include apps that cover many different areas. Feel free to skip around till you find the best app for your specific habit-building goals.

1. Evernote (Habit – Note taking)

One of the better habits we can get into is note taking. Why? Because that way we won't have to remember things, and when we don't have to remember things we have more mental resources to spare.

Now there's several ways to take notes, ranging from pen and paper to digital means, but what I recommend is Evernote.

Evernote is good because it's really easy to file everything with it, all you need to do is make a new folder each topic you write about, and then you just pull up that folder for automatic organization.

This is one of the major benefits of using an electronic form of note taking, notes can be categorized with a hefty degree of control. Definitely give Evernote a shot if you’re ready to start taking notes like a boss.

[Find out more about Organizing your life with Evernote]

2. Coach.me (Habit – General)

If you're looking for a task management app that combines itself with social ingenuity, then this is what you're looking for.

This is an app that uses basic habit-tracking software, but it's the social integration that makes it stand out. Basically you can make make or find friends on the app, and then you can encourage each other as you make progress with your goals/habits.

Just tracking your progress is fantastic strategy for building good habits, but when you combine that with with a motivational partner or group, you can increase your chances of success tenfold.

3. HabitRPG (Habit – General)

This app is really neat because it makes your life more like a video game.

The app focuses on rewarding you for accomplishing your tasks. Each time you complete a task, you gain experience points which level up your in-game character.

As you overcome tasks, you also earn money in the process. This money can be used to buy all sorts of equipment for your character, such as weapons and armor. And since there's so much equipment to buy, it extends the life of the game significantly.

And to add more “gamification” to the game, once you reach level 10 you can choose the type of class you want your character to be (e.g. warrior, rogue, etc.).

All of these traits combined work fantastically well to create a video game like experience in real life. And to bolster the overall experience, you and some friends can team up to take out a “boss” as well.

So if you're the kind of person who loves video games and wants to combine that love with building good habits, then this is the perfect app for you.

4. HabitClock (Habit – Morning Routines)

If you need help establishing a good morning-routine, then this app is for you.

It works much like standard to-do list, but has a few unique traits that lets it be more useful to you in the morning. For one thing, each task comes with a timer, so when you're doing all your morning tasks there's this urgency that keeps you on track. This is really helpful if you find that you suck at adding new habits to your mornings because you frequently run out of time.

And if you want to add new habits to your morning but don't know what to add, there's a built-in trend list so you can copy what other people are doing in the morning as well.

This is great for those of you who just want to focus on the morning routine, give this tool a shot if you just can’t get those mornings as organized as you’d like.

5. Loggr (Habit – Health & Fitness)

Loggr is great for tracking your habits when it comes to health and fitness.

It comes with powerful tracking metrics, so there's no confusion at all to how much progress you're making. This is perfect for those of you who love to keep detailed records of what you’re doing, and this applies to the food, fitness, health, sports, and more as well.

In fact, you can keep track of your blood sugar levels, and that's something not many apps can attest to.

So if you're looking for an app that covers all your health bases, then this is the perfect app for you.

6. The Fabulous – Habit & Routine (Habit – General Wellbeing)

This is a neat little app that focuses on the habit of maintaining your well-being.

It's preloaded with a set of habits that are great for your health, like drinking water, meditating, studying, cleaning, exercising, and so on. And each one shows you how long each habit will take as well (e.g. water – 1 minute), so this app is great for easing your way into healthier habits.

One of the most unique benefits about this app is that you can get real life coaching based on your habits, which almost no other apps offer. It also comes with personalized emails that help you better manage your new healthy habits.

7. Chains.cc (Habit – General)

This is a great habit building tool because of how simple it is to implement.

All you need to do is find or create a group for the habit that you want to have, and then for each day you complete the habit you mark it in your “chain” that it was done.

A nice little feature is that you can choose the type of chain you use to track your habit, which is great considering how important the visual is for motivation.

What really makes this work is the social aspect of it. Each group can have at least a dozen members, so all these people are there to encourage each other to keep their chains going. You can even treat it as a competition and see who can keep their chains going the longest, this can make habit building a lot more fun.

This is perfect for those of you want a simple, no-nonsense habit tracking tool.

8. Strides (Habit – General)

Strides is a great habit tool for building good routines and tracking pretty much anything you'd like to do.

It's got a very robust set of tracking metrics, so it's easy to see exactly how well you're doing when it comes to your habits. You can choose a habit/goal from the many preloaded ones within the tool, or you can make up your own.

In addition to the impressive tracking metrics, you can also level up if you consistently stick with your habits/goals long enough, giving it a little bit of a “gamification” quality as well.

Over to You

What apps have given you the most success with your habits? Leave a comment below with your answer because I’d love to hear about it 🙂

Like this post?

Then share the below image on your favorite social media website (like Pinterest)!