iOS SOFTWARE
An app to make a habit of using
Get help with habits, enhance the Clipboard, create cinemagraph images, plus more
£4.99 FROM Crunchy Bagel, streaksapp.com needs iOS 9 or later
There are likely things you want to be doing more of in your life, but don’t – maybe you want to read a bit every day, you want to work out more, or you want to quit smoking. These things are not well suited to lurking on your calendar, nestled between work tasks and family events. But nor are traditional to-do managers geared towards habit-forming. Fortunately, Streaks is a handy to-do app blazing to your rescue.
Streaks wants you to stay focused and not overwhelm yourself. The main screen comprises up to six buttons, one dedicated to each task. There’s a second page, but really you want to keep your habits to a minimum until they’re fully infused into your routine.
Streaks is delightfully versatile due to a mix of task types and settings to choose from. If you want to floss your teeth every day, that’s easy enough to set up (and comes complete with a huge tooth icon), and you can set a reminder to ping you a notification at the relevant time. Fancy working out a few times a week, but not sure on what days? Streaks can cater for that. Want to stop doing something? ‘Negative’ tasks can be created. Keen on strict sessions for a particular habit? Streaks will add a play button to the task which, when pressed, will transform it into an ad-hoc timer.
Items can be marked complete from the app icon’s 3D Touch menu, a Today view widget or your Apple Watch (if you don’t fancy opening the app itself). If you’ve got an iPad, Streaks now properly fits its screen, and your tasks and progress can be synced to iCloud.
Tap an individual habit button to see how often the task has been completed on a calendar. Tap again to see your streak count, target for the week, and percentage over the past 30 days. Tap and hold to view a larger, interactive calendar that you can use to mark days you forgot to add.
Global goals
A more global stats view is available from the star button. Here, you can view global or individual streaks, with bar charts and line graphs providing a visual indication of trends, including the time tasks were performed (providing you’ve marked items as complete when you’ve done them).
A smattering of customisation options (background colours, layouts, day and week start) and Siri Shortcuts support complete an excellent app for starting good habits or ditching bad ones.