Developer: Funn Media
Price: Free (+optional $8/year subscription)
Size: 53.2MB
Version: 1.2
Platform: iPhone & iPad
We’re at that time of year when many of us resolve to overcome bad habits. With HabitMinder installed on your device, you might even stand a chance of sticking to those New Year’s resolutions.
Whether you’re intent on doing more exercise, eating more fruit, drinking more water, or just taking some time out of every day to practice mindfulness, HabitMinder is designed to help you see your good intentions through to completion.
There are 49 habits spread across five categories
Think of it as a guided reminders app, with several connection points to Apple’s own Health app and some simple measurement tools. HabitMinder will provide custom prompts across a whole range of positive habits, as well as the means to track any affirmative action.
By tapping the plus button from the app’s home screen you’ll be taken to HabitMinder’s habit selector. The number of simultaneous trackable habits you can choose varies depending on whether or not you’ve paid for the app; if you have just a small list of habits to track the free version will suffice. If you need more, there’s a one week trial that precedes an $8/£8 per year subscription system.
Some habits tie in with Apple Health
The dozens of habits on offer are divided into five main categories: Body, Mind, Healthy Habits, Appreciate, and Commit.
Body will probably be the most-used category over the coming months as people seek to shed their holiday bellies, and it’s also the most functionally varied. The likes of Walk and Run feed into the Health app to track your steps, while Stretch and Squats provide a simple manual timer for you to start at set intervals.
Some habits use a crude counting tool
HabitMinder’s other categories might give you a counter to tick off the things you learn in a day or the pieces of fruit you’ve consumed. Whatever the positive habit, though, the home screen will tick it off like a particularly wholesome shopping list. Much like the activity circles on the Apple Watch, it feels good to see a colorful list of completed tasks at the end of the day.
Completing a task is always satisfying
Regardless of the habit you can alter things like the frequency, target figure, icon type, and notification tone. You also have the option to create your own custom habits. It’s here that the feeling of a glorified reminders app is most pronounced, but it’s nice to have the option to start from scratch.
The key to HabitMinder’s success or failure, of course, will be in how easy it is to get into the habit of using it. Fortunately, the app is thoroughly pleasant to use throughout, with a clean color-coded art style and easy-to-follow graphs. It’s surprisingly unobtrusive, too – though your opinion may vary depending on the number of habit reminders you opt to set.
HabitMinder’s widget lets you glance at your progress
There’s even a handy widget, so you can track your progress at a glance direct from the iOS home screen without having to dive into the app proper.
HabitMinder won’t single-handedly instill good habits in you. It’s perfectly easy to ignore its notifications, and it won’t nag you if you do so. For those who have the necessary willpower and simply need a nudge in the right direction, however, it could be key to a better you in the coming year.