Something I’ve been meaning to do is start taking care of myself a little more seriously. With an extremely chaotic schedule, my sleeping routine is a complete mess, and my overall well-being feels like it’s constantly playing catch-up. I use different apps to keep up with my college and work life, like Notion, Google Tasks, Reclaim, etc.
The reason those somewhat basic apps work for me is because work and college are both things I have to keep up with. Self-care, on the other hand, has none of that built-in pressure, and I always seem to neglect it and shove it onto the backburner. So, I’ve been on the hunt for an app that will help me stay consistent with the things I want to do for myself.
I needed something a little fun, just so I’d actually use it, and it wouldn’t feel like another task on my already overflowing to-do list. That’s when I came across an app that lets me take care of a virtual little creature by… taking care of myself. It sounded ridiculous enough to work, so of course I had to try it.
What is Finch?
The cutest habit tracker
Finch is a daily journal and habit tracker app, available on both the App Store and Google Play Store, designed to help you achieve the goals you’re working toward and maintain healthy habits. The way Finch does this is pretty unique: you hatch a “Finch” egg and get a baby bird. You then name the bird, choose its pronouns, and pick one personality trait for it: Curiosity, Resilience, Compassion, Logic, Confidence, or Security.
After that, Finch asks you a series of questions to help determine a few self-care goals to start with, such as:
- What areas would you like support with?
- Which topics make it harder for you to feel confident or accept yourself?
- What tends to overwhelm you the most?
- Why do you think you put things off?
Based on your answers (and other questions), your pet generates a starter plan with a few initial goals. For example, here are the goals the app generated for me:
- Get out of bed
- Brush teeth
- Wash my face
- Drink water
- Take a stretch break
- Do one thing that makes me happy
I also added a couple of my own goals, like walking 6,000 steps, reading for 30 minutes, and spending some time with family. As you might have guessed, I kept Finch strictly focused on personal self-care goals I actually wanted to build into my routine. I made sure not to add any work or college tasks (even though I was tempted, since the premise of the app makes it easy to treat it like a regular to-do list).
Finch doesn’t make the mistakes other apps do
Momentum > perfection
It’s been a little over a week since I started using Finch, and the reason I’ve enjoyed it so far is that it doesn’t make one major mistake almost all other apps of a similar nature do: it doesn’t punish you for missing a task. For instance, Flora is an accountability app I’ve been using for years. While it’s not exactly a habit tracker like Finch, I’m mentioning it because it illustrates how many apps make you feel guilty or stressed when you “fail.”
Flora lets you plant a seed when you’re about to begin a focus session. If you get through the session, your seed grows into a full-fledged tree. But if your focus breaks, and you pick up your phone, the seed dies, and your tree is lost. I think this turns what should be a motivating exercise into a stressful reminder that you didn’t measure up. While the guilt of killing a tree (even if its virtual) ends up forcing me into focusing, it still adds some level of anxiety around tasks that are meant to be positive.
Finch flips that approach. When you complete a task, you get rainbow stones, which you can use to buy new clothes for your bird or furniture for its space. Each task you complete daily also increases your bird’s energy. When your bird reaches the maximum energy for the day, it goes on an adventure. The best part is that you don’t need to complete all your tasks for the day to go on an adventure.
Even partial progress is rewarded, which keeps the experience positive and motivating rather than stressful. When your bird returns from an adventure, it reports on the things it saw. If you don’t manage to complete one (or even all) of your tasks for the day, it’s no big deal. Finch also has Pause Mode, which lets you pause and preserve your streak (the consecutive days you’ve been keeping up with your self-care goals) for a certain number of days.
It gamifies self-care in the best way
It’s silly (and that’s why I love it)
My love language has always been caring for the people around me. Finch taps into that instinct. As I complete tasks and earn rainbow stones, I buy new outfits for my bird and then dress it up! I’ve gotten into the habit of changing my outfit for bedtime, and then again, when I wake up to start a new day, turning these small rituals into a fun, motivating way to kick off my mornings.
Finch also tracks your mood throughout the day and lets you type in notes or reflections, giving you a simple way to check in with yourself and notice patterns in how your habits affect your well-being. To be completely honest, I don’t use the mood-tracking features as much as I should. I often end up opening the app once or twice a day to update my progress and check in on my bird.
Finch is my new favorite app
Given I’m a massive, massive procrastinator, the only productivity hacks that ever work for me are the truly weird (and slightly chaotic) ones. Naturally, that also means the only apps that manage to keep me on track are the ones that are just as odd. In fact, the odder the app is, the better it usually works. This is probably why Finch ended up being right up my alley.