Daydeed: Build habits that stick

Maker here! Wow, I wasn't expecting DayDeed to get featured on Product Hunt! I hope you can live with the current MVP :D (there are soooo many things to come). You can use it, it's already pretty good I'm really happy to answer any question, I've just been allowed to talk on PH, and I'd like to make good use of this privilege! So... AMA! If you want, I can also talk about the big picture, the non-top-secret parts of the roadmap (mobile apps, connection to fitness trackers,...). I'm a bit busy at the moment, but I'll come back as soon as I can. **EDIT** So I found some time for you guys :) (Apologize for the english, it's not my native language). So yeah, tracking habits :) I don't know about you guys, but there are so many habits I want to change. Some good ones I want to build, and some bad ones I want to break. It might be a bit cliché to quote Aristote here, but this is something I truely believe in: "We are what we repeatedly do." If you ever went to the gym for a while, if you succeded to quit smoking, or if you started to learn something new, you probably figured out how life-changing a habit can be. Getting started is usually easy, but the prolem is after a while, when the dopamine fiend in your brain starts to complain. This is what DayDeed tackles: the reward/punishment system. How does that happen? Well first, you make a small but important commitment, when you start to track a habit: You say that every day (or any period), you will log whether you succeeded or not. Then, after let's say two weeks, it's really satisfying to see all those green graphs. One of my biggest problem when I tried to build habits, was that I didn't feel any achievement. Now I have those graphs, and they make me aware of my progress. And if you fail, now you have to put an ugly red mark on this beautiful board, how bad does that feel? One could say it uses OCD to make you feel good about doing stuff. That's why the background is black, to put some contrast :) That's also why there is a "Yes"/"No"/"?" system: it forces you to say "I failed!" instead of just not saying anything (like most habit trackers do). This is also useful in case you have a very good reason not to go to the gym (if that exists), you don't have to mark a day as "Failed", you can leave it blank. It will leave a blank box in your dashboard, but it won't be counted as "failed" in the stats. This is why there's no "goal setting" *yet*. After talking to some users, I think I will add this feature, but it will be really be flexible (and allow over-achieving and under-achieving). So that's where the difference starts. I've also added two simple features: - Tracking numbers: Some things are not just "yes" or "no". For example I drink too much coffee, but I don't want to quit. So I can track the number of cups of coffee I drank every day, and try to minimize the value (and have a nice and fancy curve). - Take notes: In case you have a very good reason to fail, or if you want to log some specific achievement,... or anything that's not just a score. The idea is to have a flexible way to track everything. I've already planned to handle hours, images, and other different types of data. Now, what's next? Well, the interface needs to be improved, especially for mobile (like the big iPhone 6). Focus: simplicity and speed of use (that's a productivity tool, right?). I'm obviously going to create mobile apps, but not until the app has all the good stuff I want. Another obvious feature: reminders. They will come with a "reply to this email" feature, so you can just answer "Yes" or "No", or "723" to track the item. Amonst the other "good stuff" there is something really special that I want to build: connections to other services. Fitness trackers are obvious candidates, and there are many things out there that could be tracked. A really smart user suggested one service that I never thought off, which I believe will be a killer-feature. I really want to keep the surprise, so sorry I won't tell you here ;) Another obvious connection: social media. Auto-tweet your achievements, make habits "public",... One more thing: the app is going to stay really simple. I don't want to have too many things, it's designed as a productivity tool, and to me it means it has to go straight to the point, and not lose the user's time. So that means I don't plan to add some fancy things that other similar apps have (like a social network: there's already reddit to get support for most of the habits you want ot work on). I may change my mind in the future, but it's definitely not a priority. And finally, thanks everyone for the PH experience! I was really surprised to see that it was here, thanks @dredurr. As I said, it's a bit of an MVP, so I was not really prepared for that, but I'm really glad it happened. Lots of love, -- Julien