u/NotionHabitHeroes

I tracked habits privately for years. Started with Habitica and then discovered the whole Notion Ecosystem. I was good at the tracking part and bad at the doing part. A streak would build for a week or two, then die on some busy Tuesday, and the only witness was me. Nobody knew, so nothing happened, and I'd start over the next Monday feeling fine about it.

In the end real change happened after I upgraded my Notion setup to be able to share my habits with a handful of friends. Same habits, same checkboxes, except now people could see whether I actually went to the gym, and I could see whether they did.

Take-away:

• Losing a visible streak hurts differently than losing a private one. A private streak resets and you shrug. A visible one resets and there's a small social cost, even when nobody says anything. That little bit of loss aversion got me to the gym on more rainy evenings than motivation ever did.
• The mechanism is mild competitiveness, not shame. Nobody in our group has ever commented on a missed day. The pull comes from seeing a friend a few points ahead and not wanting to stay behind. If your group is the type to mock a miss, this will backfire; pick people who are also trying.
• Fewer habits, done visibly, beat many habits done privately. Once people could see my list, I stopped performing ambition with it. I cut from about ten habits to four, and the four actually happen now.

If you are already using Notion and wanna socialize your tracking experience, then check out the Notion integration I built solo. Link in profile. I'd love some feedback!

I tracked habits privately for years. Started with Habitica and then discovered the whole Notion Ecosystem. I was good at the tracking part and bad at the doing part. A streak would build for a week or two, then die on some busy Tuesday, and the only witness was me. Nobody knew, so nothing happened, and I'd start over the next Monday feeling fine about it.

In the end real change happened after I upgraded my Notion setup to be able to share my habits with a handful of friends. Same habits, same checkboxes, except now people could see whether I actually went to the gym, and I could see whether they did.

Learnings:

• Losing a visible streak hurts differently than losing a private one. A private streak resets and you shrug. A visible one resets and there's a small social cost, even when nobody says anything. That little bit of loss aversion got me to the gym on more rainy evenings than motivation ever did.
• The mechanism is mild competitiveness, not shame. Nobody in our group has ever commented on a missed day. The pull comes from seeing a friend a few points ahead and not wanting to stay behind. If your group is the type to mock a miss, this will backfire; pick people who are also trying.
• Fewer habits, done visibly, beat many habits done privately. Once people could see my list, I stopped performing ambition with it. I cut from about ten habits to four, and the four actually happen now.

If you are already using Notion and wanna socialize your tracking experience, then check out the Notion integration I built solo. Link in profile. I'd love some feedback!