Career

Habit Tracker

A streak grid for daily habits, stored on your device.

What it does. A habit tracker works by making the record visible: marking a day creates a chain, and the chain becomes the thing you do not want to break. This one stores its data in your browser on your device, so the record is yours and no account is involved.

Runs in your browserNothing uploadsNo signupWorks offline

How to use Habit Tracker

Add the habits you want to track — three or four, not fifteen.
Mark each day as you do it.
Watch the current and longest streaks; export the data any time.

Why tracking works at all

The mechanism is not motivation, it is feedback. An unbroken row of marks is a visible record of consistency, and it changes the question from "do I feel like it today" to "am I breaking this".

That is also its limit. A tracker measures whether you did the thing. It cannot make the thing easier, and if a habit keeps failing, the answer is usually to make it smaller rather than to track it harder.

The widely repeated "21 days to form a habit" has no good evidence behind it. The study people usually cite found a median closer to 66 days with an enormous range — from about three weeks to well over eight months depending on the behaviour and the person.

Three or four habits, not fifteen

The commonest failure is tracking too much. A grid with fifteen rows is a daily reminder of fourteen things you did not do, which is demoralising rather than motivating.

Three or four is enough to matter and few enough to keep.

Missing one day is not a broken habit — it is a missed day. The evidence on this is reassuring: a single lapse has almost no effect on eventual habit formation. Missing two in a row is the pattern worth interrupting.

Making a habit smaller

Shrink it until it is trivially doable on your worst day, not your best.
Attach it to something you already do. After coffee, not "at 8am".
Track the action, not the outcome. "Ran" is trackable; "got fitter" is not.
Make the smallest version count. Ten minutes marks the day.
Never miss twice. The rule that matters most.

If a habit has failed three times, the design is wrong rather than you. Halve it and try again.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to form a habit?

Longer than the popular "21 days", which has no good evidence behind it. The most cited study found a median near 66 days with a very wide range — roughly three weeks to over eight months depending on the behaviour.

How many habits should I track?

Three or four. A grid of fifteen becomes a daily reminder of fourteen things you did not do, which demoralises rather than motivates.

I missed a day — is the habit broken?

No. A single lapse has almost no measurable effect on eventual habit formation. Missing two in a row is the pattern worth interrupting.

Where is my data stored?

In your browser’s local storage, on your device. No account, no server copy, and no notifications — which also means no backup, so export if it matters.

What if a habit keeps failing?

Make it smaller rather than tracking it harder. Shrink it until it is doable on your worst day and attach it to something you already do.