TL;DR: Tweet to track a habit.
It's much more motivating to share progress with others on the same journey, whether it's learning math, building in public, lifting weights, running, losing weight, learning a language, doing a side project, etc.
Here's what my habit page looks like: https://xtreeks.com/gabemays (I'll be adding my other habits soon)
Longer version - Here's a confession: This is a 10+ year obsession that my wife teases me about. I've been using various habit tracking tools for over a decade and have had multiple 1,000 day streaks.
It started with I when a PM at a public tech co and got serious about dogfooding (using my own product). So I made a little script that'd make a GitHub commit whenever I used my product. I did it for over 1,000 days. I also grew the product from 7 to 9 figures ARR in a few years. I'm not saying that was the sole reason, but I'm sure it didn't hurt :)
After trying dozens of habit apps I've realized they're all pretty much the same. Two main issues:
1. They are great for doing small things, like taking your vitamins daily. But for doing hard things consistently you need a different approach.
2. After using any habit app for a year or so the core mechanics break down and it actually becomes counter productive for various reasons. I will solve those long-term issues with this app because I've encountered them over and over.
Why now:
- In 2023 I started using Math Academy daily to re-learn math as an adult. I wrote about my experience after 100 days here: https://gmays.com/math Now I'm at over 500 days of doing math daily. But that summer my volume started dropping because it was getting HARD and I was balancing it with other obligations, especially in the summers with the kids out of school. I was consistent, but my volume sucked, which created a doom loop that slowed progress significantly. After trying everything, I recently learned that sharing my daily updates in the Math Academy community on X (https://x.com/i/communities/1833...) really helped since there were many others on the same journey and we keep each other going, especially when things get hard (yay integrals).
- I've been searching for the perfect habit app for over a decade. I got so frustrated recently that I considered buying one for $10k that was for sale. But it'd one a major rebuild, so instead decided I'd pay $5k to get help building a new one from scratch quickly (that's how much I wanted it). So I called my best friend (who happens to be the best engineer I know) and said I needed this and I'd either pay him to help or he could work on it with me as a product. Turns out he was looking for the same solution, so here we are.
- AI is good enough now to recognize and understand habits cheaply. I've been building AI native apps since 2023, so this would be pretty straight forward for the MVP. I'm excited to add image recognition soon, which eliminates the need to build as many integrations. There are so many other ways to streamline things with AI as well that'll be fun to build.
- AI is changing a lot of things, but what it will never change is the human desire to learn, do hard things and connect with others on similar journeys. That's what I noticed in myself, which pushed me to make Xtreeks. E.g. in my Math Academy group there are also a LOT of others trying to (re)learn math and ML to break into the industry.
Try the app and let me know what you think. You can just login with X to create an account. It's free and the current plan will stay that way. I plan to add paid plans in the future for the more expensive to run features so we can at least run this at breakeven.
But even if it never makes a dollar I'll be using it for the next decade since I spent the last decade looking for exactly this. I hope you love it as much as I do ❤️
Here's the site where you can login to try it: https://xtreeks.com
Intro of the video is like I would listen to myself: "I am obsessed with habits." 😄
It's true that I am more motivated with trackers or at least with something that gamifies my progress (DuoLingo, GitHub, PH streak, UglyDuckling for Twitter, BlueskyMeter for Bluesky).
There are many trackers. Any plan how to differentiate?
There are many trackers. Any plan how to differentiate?
Yes, good question. I've used dozens of them over the last decade. When you first try it, the first two differentiators are:
It works with what you're already doing, which is tweeting, so there's minimal friction. The habit should be the hard thing, not the act of tracking it.
Instead of trying to build its own social network it just uses the one you already have (it'll support more in the future). And by virtue of that, doing your habits consistently builds your social credibility since others can see your progress and you'll naturally find other people on the same journey.
I've used multiple habit apps for over a year and some 'features' of those apps become counterproductive after a year or so of use, so I aim to solve those as well, which will differentiate.
Lastly, since I have been personally wrestling with this issue for over a decade, the biggest differentiator is that this is the one that actually works for me in doing hard habits, the ones that make a real difference in your life.
The problem is valid since you want to help people stay consistent on X, but why would they tag your brand name every day to keep themselves accountable?
@gamifykaran Those tags are how we detect their habits and track them.
There are plenty of people that just tweet their habits without tracking them externally, but that's a wasted opportunity IMO. It's much better to build an asset where you can see your progress and track your consistency over time (example: https://xtreeks.com/gabemays) by just adding a few extra characters.
If they don't want to include it in the main post they can always do it it the reply, either way works, but that lets us track the habit for them.
Always looking to make my X account pop - Currently at the 2k+ follower mark & it's always great to have new people on board for our X-CRM :)
Love to hear you've been smashing your habit trackers out the day, do you use Duolingo?
I like the fact we've got someone who uses habit-trackers religiously as the person who is now making their own, means I know this is going to be of insanely high quality!!
@cranqnow Thank you! I hope it helps. It has the double benefit of 1) forcing you to share your progress/consistency publicly on X which 2) shows people you get things done, which builds your credibility, following and becomes an asset over time.
I don't use Duolingo, but I've heard of it and studied how they drive habits. Streaks are really powerful and a core part of the app. I use Math Academy, which works similarly, just a bit more intense, which drove me to making this app 😆
@ajay27324 Thank you! This has been a long personal journey over the last decade. Happy to have finally pulled the trigger on it and I hope it helps other like it's helping me. It has absolutely been life changing!
@masump Thank you, I appreciate it! 🙏
minimalist phone: creating folders
Intro of the video is like I would listen to myself: "I am obsessed with habits." 😄
It's true that I am more motivated with trackers or at least with something that gamifies my progress (DuoLingo, GitHub, PH streak, UglyDuckling for Twitter, BlueskyMeter for Bluesky).
There are many trackers. Any plan how to differentiate?
@busmark_w_nika Haha thanks!
Yes, good question. I've used dozens of them over the last decade. When you first try it, the first two differentiators are:
It works with what you're already doing, which is tweeting, so there's minimal friction. The habit should be the hard thing, not the act of tracking it.
Instead of trying to build its own social network it just uses the one you already have (it'll support more in the future). And by virtue of that, doing your habits consistently builds your social credibility since others can see your progress and you'll naturally find other people on the same journey.
I've used multiple habit apps for over a year and some 'features' of those apps become counterproductive after a year or so of use, so I aim to solve those as well, which will differentiate.
Lastly, since I have been personally wrestling with this issue for over a decade, the biggest differentiator is that this is the one that actually works for me in doing hard habits, the ones that make a real difference in your life.
The problem is valid since you want to help people stay consistent on X, but why would they tag your brand name every day to keep themselves accountable?
@gamifykaran Those tags are how we detect their habits and track them.
There are plenty of people that just tweet their habits without tracking them externally, but that's a wasted opportunity IMO. It's much better to build an asset where you can see your progress and track your consistency over time (example: https://xtreeks.com/gabemays) by just adding a few extra characters.
If they don't want to include it in the main post they can always do it it the reply, either way works, but that lets us track the habit for them.
Always looking to make my X account pop - Currently at the 2k+ follower mark & it's always great to have new people on board for our X-CRM :)
Love to hear you've been smashing your habit trackers out the day, do you use Duolingo?
I like the fact we've got someone who uses habit-trackers religiously as the person who is now making their own, means I know this is going to be of insanely high quality!!
Let's go Gabe!!
@cranqnow Thank you! I hope it helps. It has the double benefit of 1) forcing you to share your progress/consistency publicly on X which 2) shows people you get things done, which builds your credibility, following and becomes an asset over time.
I don't use Duolingo, but I've heard of it and studied how they drive habits. Streaks are really powerful and a core part of the app. I use Math Academy, which works similarly, just a bit more intense, which drove me to making this app 😆
Insightful product description and personal experiences for providing progress related tools like this.
@ajay27324 Thank you! This has been a long personal journey over the last decade. Happy to have finally pulled the trigger on it and I hope it helps other like it's helping me. It has absolutely been life changing!