Using The Finch App To Build Meaningful Habits

A friend introduced me to the Finch App about six months ago. Not only it is very cute but it's also helped me foster and maintain helpful and health supporting habits in several areas of my life. Here's how it worked, what I've achieved and how I've been using it.

What is the Finch App?

The Finch app, available on both Android and Apple platforms, turns self-care and habit-building into a game. As tasks are ticked off you earn rewards for your darling little 'birb' enabling him to dress nattily, do up his house and explore the world.

I'm especially pleased with his funky coloured nests and my little fella's 11:11 clock that is a permanent fixture about the front door of his cosy home. To provide further encouragement you can invite supportive friends who are working on their own goals. Oh and I almost forgot to mention that every so often you can win a new pet to accompany you on your travels.

What's really good about the app is the sheer variety of tasks that you can work on. There are built-in suggestions but you can also create your own. Tasks can be scheduled for different time frames. Currently I have both daily and weekly ones. They can also be categorised. All of these features are available in both the free and premium versions of the app. At present I use the free one and I'm pretty happy with it.

So what do I miss out on without a subscription? Well, I have fewer fancy rewards, a smaller range of daily travel destinations and fewer items for my house and wardrobe to choose from. I also have less choice in how I can greet my buddies. However the habit tracking functionality is so good I'm not annoyed by these small restrictions at all.

How I Use The App

It's ever so easy to add new habits. There are some pretty good suggestions about what to work on within the app itself. For example, during this time of limited light when my mood dips, I work on promoting happiness. Taking a photo of something that makes me smile was one of the suggestions for a goal that I've taken up. And this is today's shot. My mum treated us to a super new fridge in the January Sales. Random coloured lights shine from its fruit and veg trays when I open the door. It makes me think of the creature lurking in the fridge in the Ghostbusters movie!

And then there are goals that I've made up myself.. I'm currently working on recording my diet and exercise in the 'My Fitness' app as in the past, I've found this useful for encouraging weight loss. I also earn reward points when I contribute towards a blog post and when I have a no spend day. I don't add too many new tasks at a time, just one or two each week. However I also keep a list of ideas for future habits which I add to whenever I have a lightbulb moment. Plans for the future include skipping, increasing the amount that I shop in small local stores and conserving water.

Once a habit is well and truly reinforced I'll delete it from the goals list. This might be after a fortnight or it can take longer. Conversely when I lapse an previous task might be added again to re-establish it. Sometimes I'll update a current goal to make it simpler or more challenging. The number of seconds that I perform a plank each morning to improve core strength has successively progressed. Inspired by a ninety-something old woman I saw on YouTube I'm working towards holding the position for two minutes. I've currently reached fifty seconds before I'm allowed to collapse in a heap. This isn't bad considering my original efforts were around the ten second mark.

Habits I've Established

The reason that this app has remained on my phone is simple. It works! My behaviour really is being transformed step by tiny step. Here's a short list of some of the things that are now firmly embedded into my daily and weekly routines.

• Regularly flossing my teeth

• Cleaning my water bottle, motivated by the news that this essential piece of kit is often more germy than a toilet!

• Maintaining an exercise routine after I wake up

• Writing in a reflective diary daily.

• Meditating for fifteen minute at the beginning and end of each day.

• Picking up litter on my walks outside the home.

An Invitation

Why not join me in changing your life, step by small step, in such a playful way? Finch has worked because its turned habit formation, that could be rather a joyless endeavour into a delightful game.