Pick one habit and keep it small

A new year makes it tempting to start five habits at once. Start one. Choose something you can do on your worst day as well as your best: a ten minute walk, two pages of a book, a glass of water before coffee. Once that habit takes little thought, add the next one.

Write the habit down the way you will check it off. "Read" is hard to judge on a busy evening; "read ten pages before bed" is not. The app can track it the same way: yes or no, a count, a duration, or a multi check-in for something you do 2 to 4 times a day.

Choose one friend for the month

Your friend does not need the same habit. What matters is that they will notice when you go quiet, and that you would feel a little awkward letting them down. A sibling, a housemate, a colleague or the friend you made the resolution with all work.

Send them an invite link from the Partners tab, or show them the QR code if you are together. Pairing is free for both of you, and so are reactions and nudges.

Your first 30 days

Thirty days is a stretch you can picture on the first of January, and short enough to say yes to. HabitFlame marks the way with streak milestones at 7, 14, 21 and 30 days, each with a celebration in the app, and keeps going after that with milestones at 50, 75 and 100 days.

This plan is for a habit you do every day. For a habit on specific days, only the scheduled days count toward its streak, so each milestone comes later than these weeks. A weekly target adds a week's completions to its streak once the target is met, so the streak moves a week at a time, three, six, then nine for three a week, and it can step past a milestone such as 7 days without landing on it; a milestone the streak steps past is not celebrated.

  • Week one: aim for every scheduled day, and expect one of them to be hard. The 7 day milestone is the first on the way.
  • Week two: keep the habit small even when it starts to feel easy. The 14 day milestone comes at the end of it.
  • Week three: plan for the busy day before it arrives. A nudge from your friend on a quiet evening is what nudges are for. The 21 day milestone closes the week.
  • Week four: the 30 day milestone ends the month. Decide together whether to keep the habit as it is, make it a little bigger, or add a second one.

If you complete every habit scheduled on each of 7 days in a row, you earn the Perfect Week badge, and 30 days in a row earns Perfect Month. Both look at calendar days and ask only for what each day had scheduled, and a habit with a weekly target has to keep pace with its target, so a planned rest day does not cost you either badge. They are two of the 16 achievement badges.

What your friend gets during the month

On the free version, the two of you see a combined weekly count of what you completed, updated when the app is opened. A quiet week shows in the count, and your friend can send a nudge when it does.

With Premium on your side, each shared habit you complete in the app for today reaches your friend the moment you do it, along with a milestone alert when a streak lands exactly on a milestone. Your friend does not need Premium to receive them, and can react with a flame.

Free accounts get 3 nudges a month, so save them for the evenings that need one. Premium removes the monthly limit, and it is a one-time purchase of $9.99, not a subscription.

Set it up in the app

  • Add the habit and pick its schedule: every day, specific days of the week, or a weekly target for habits like the gym that do not fit every day.
  • Set a reminder time for it; the wording is picked again each time you open the app.
  • Send your friend an invite link from the Partners tab; with Premium, you also choose which habits they are part of.
  • Add a home screen widget to complete the habit with one tap, without opening the app. A habit completed from a widget sends your friend no alert, though it still adds to the weekly count.
  • For a habit measured in time, such as study or practice, the Pomodoro focus timer keeps the time; log the minutes on the habit when you finish.

When a day is missed

For a habit that runs every day or on specific days, missing a scheduled day resets the current streak, while the longest streak stays as your record to beat. Days when the habit is not scheduled do not count against you. The year grid in the Stats tab keeps every day you did, so one miss in January is one square, not the whole month.

The plan for the day after a miss is the plan for day one: do the small version of the habit. Tell your friend if you want to, or let the weekly count do it.

After January

For a daily habit, the end of the month brings a streak of 30 days or a record of where it broke, and a friend who knows how it went. From there, keep going toward the 50 and 100 day milestones, raise the habit a little, or start the next one with the same friend.

If more than one friend wants in, pairing with several people is covered in the guide to tracking habits with friends. For the details of pairing with one person, see the accountability partner guide.

Questions about starting a habit in the new year

Do we both need Premium?
No. Pairing, reactions, nudges and the combined weekly count are free for both of you. Premium on your side sends each shared habit you complete in the app for today to your friend as it happens, and it is a one-time purchase of $9.99, not a subscription.
Does my friend need the same habit?
No. Each of you keeps your own habits, and the weekly count adds up what the two of you completed, whatever the habits are.
Can more than one friend join?
Yes. You can pair with several people, and with Premium choose which habits each of them can follow.
Do I have to start on the first of January?
No. Nothing in the plan depends on the calendar. Start on any day and count your 30 days from there.
What happens to my streak if I miss a day?
Missing a scheduled day resets the current streak, and your longest streak stays on record. Days the habit is not scheduled do not count against you.