What is it? SimpleGoals is a free app that can help you to stay on track with your goals/habits like: “Exercise 4 times a week”, “Read 2 books each month” or “Watch TV 3 times a week max”.
How can it help? Some of the users of my Eternity app made an interesting observation that having a record of what they do keeps them focused and motivated. They just don’t want to “screw the record”. That’s not the only reason of course, but it obviously helps many users to trick their mind into overcoming procrastination and keep going. But Eternity is a time tracking app, and, even as simple as it is, tracking time is an overkill for a lot of people who, potentially, could benefit from such “record-keeping” approach.
So SimpleGoals focuses on just that. Define your small goals/habits and enter them on your iPhone/iPod. Then, every day, be honest with yourself and put a checkmark where appropriate. Positive goal – you won today :), negative – you lost :(. Simple! Daily, weekly and monthly counts easily accessible. “It’s a simple list with checkmarks!”. Yes, it is. I had many ideas for “improvements”, but decided to start with the simplest approach that worked for me as the user of such app. And working on it was really two steps forward, one step back for me.
It’s good to have the simple goals and habits written somewhere to keep yourself accountable. Otherwise we tend to “forget” our little goals, zone them out from our conscience. But they are important. Exercising 3 times a week can build your strength and endurance enormously over time. Reading every day can built your knowledge. Avoiding watching TV can save you years of time over your lifetime. Little by little, simple things add up.
That’s why the default view is “today” view. Because today is the most important day. Can you remember what you did yesterday – most probably, the day before yesterday – possibly, 5 days ago – hmmm… That’s a good reason to keep your list up to date. Every day.
That’s why there are blank checkmarks visible. They are crying to go green ;) Will you let them down? ;)
SimpleGoals App Store link if you’d like to give it a try.