Over 2,300 years ago, Aristotle astutely noted that “we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Modern science wholeheartedly agrees, and digital designers are monetizing this wisdom by creating slew of positive-habit forming apps that could revolutionize the $10 billion per year self-help industry.
What is a habit?
On an anatomic level, habits are literally preferred routes between neurons in our brains.
Our brains, which are always pushing themselves to become more efficient, are constantly finding faster and easier ways to execute tasks. When we execute tasks for the first time—such as throwing a baseball—our brains must expend a tremendous amount of energy processing new information. They work hard to discover the paths between the neurons which tell our muscles to function a certain way. But, as we repeat these motions, our brains actually solidify these neural pathways, making them stronger and more easily finding the most effective method of completing tasks at hand. Soon, we are throwing fastballs for strikes and expending little brain-energy in the process!
How can we build habits?
Fortunately, this awesome ability can be harnessed. People can develop new habits and, quite literally, rewire their brains for better habits.
While there are many techniques to building new habits, experts stress that there are two key elements to positive-habit building: ensuring we remain consistent and rewarding ourselves for success. The habits we already hold—like eating bagels for breakfast or watching television after dinner—exist because these tasks are easy for us to do, as we have done them many times before. In order to rewire our brains and override these habits, we must create and repeat more constructive tasks and then reward ourselves for completing them successfully. This is more easily said than done, however, as executing new training regimens requires copious amounts of self-discipline and focus.
Helping to build habits
But there is good news for those who could use a gentle push—or, daily gentle pushes— in the right direction. An increasing number of mobile applications have been created to help people facilitate the construction of good habits.
By utilizing pop-up reminders, rewards, and detailed tracking of an app-user’s behavior, these apps enable users to improve themselves in a variety of ways, including reading more frequently, waking up earlier or spending more time with family, just to name a few.
One such app, RescueTime, analyzes a person’s daily activities and notifies the user when they are wasting time, encouraging them to develop more productive habits. Similarly, an app called Sessions has users record their personal goals and their current healthy habits they want to maintain. It then tracks in real-time whether or not they are meeting those goals, and allows them to log the amount of time they spent doing each activity.
Other apps function by allowing users interact with and receive support from others who are also building positive routines. Such is the case with LifeTick, which allows users to establish goals, and then invite others from around the globe to work towards these goals along with them. An app named Coach.Me not only enables users to receive positive feedback and support from other users, but it even offers a premium feature that allows users to hire personal coaches for $15 per month.
Another app, Lose It!, helps users lose weight and live healthier by allowing them to create personalized calorie budgets, monitor food intake, and evaluate their exercise routines. Lose It!—which is available on computers, tablets, and cellphones—has helped its users shed a total of 46 million pounds in just 8 years of existence. (Download Lose It! here)
While the growing variety of positive-habit building apps have proven to effectively help users improve themselves, many experts point out that the first step to fixing our bad routines and building new habits is to simply remain aware of our day-to-day activities. We must notice the things we do when we aren’t thinking, and then control them. Once we’ve achieved this capability, we can repeatedly practice more constructive habits, and inch ever closer to the excellence Aristotle spoke of, centuries ago.
