I’ve been using HabitNow since February and it’s a nice app. But I’d much prefer a FOSS alternative. The problem is that I’d like to keep my streak from HabitNow and apps either don’t let you mark in the past or they require multiple clicks.
So far I’ve tried Loop Habit and Habit builder. These both fall in the “multiple clicks” camp.
Are there any other options to consider or should I just start clicking away at the 250+ days I’ve succeeded?
Here are a couple of ideas:
- Loop Habit has the ability to save a full backup. Maybe try setting up your habits, add some fake data, and generate the backup. Open the backup file in a text editor and see whether you can infer the structure. If so, just reformat your old data to match that structure and then import that “hacked” backup file back into Loop.
- Loop Habit says it can import backup files from Tickmate, Habitbull, and Rewire as well. Similar to the above idea, if you can reformat your saved data to match one of those formats you should be able to import it into Loop.
So it does export as a .db and you can sort of make sense of it. But I also completely skipped over a setting that allows for a single tap to mark a day as successful. So that does make it easier to backfill for the year. But I’m still curious what other folks are using or if they’ve run into this.
Personally, I’ve used many trackers over the years. I currently use Loop Habit tracker but only for recording the information day-to-day. I periodically export my data in .csv format and merge it with my “long term storage” in a big spreadsheet which contains >10 years of data. I like doing it this way because I like to do statistics on it, plot it, etc. and that’s very easy in .csv format on a computer (I’m a nerd).
Because my “long term storage” is just a simple .csv I don’t need to worry about compatibility between apps. Also, if I lose my phone it’s not a big deal because I’d lose, at the most, a few months.
That reasoning is precisely why I started using Obsidian. I was keeping notes in Google Keep and a journal in Day One. Both of which require exporting to get into a more universal format. Obsidian uses plain text files, which is great for my use case. Yes, I know it’s not FOSS. But it fit my flow better than Logseq and Joplin hides the markdown in a db that also needs an export (plus the android app is awful).
Unfortunately, there’s not a very smooth way to track habits in Obsidian even with plugins. There are a few available but they’re all pretty clunky, so I’ve skipped on them.
Hey, there’s an idea! I’ll have to see what’s possible.
Isn’t there a setting in loop habits that disables accidental click protection (the long click)
I found this option:
Is that what you’re referring to?
Interested in this too.