More “Less Is More”…. (see what I did there?)
Last year I downloaded a habit tracker app. I’ve used it faithfully. Checked boxes. Built streaks. Watched little digital fireworks go off when I hit milestones.
At first, I loved it.
Lately? Not so much.
It’s not that I want to stop the habits. It’s that I’m starting to feel like I’m doing them to appease the app instead of because I want to.
The whole point of habit tracking is obvious: you nudge yourself long enough that the behavior becomes automatic. Fair enough. Maybe that worked. Maybe a year is enough runway.
But something subtle shifted.
Two of my tracked tasks are Practice ASL and Play Instrument—each for a set amount of time. On paper, that sounds disciplined. In reality, some days it feels… compulsory.
When I sit down at the bass or the drum kit because I have to hit 15 minutes, it’s different than when I pick it up because I feel like playing along to a song. I’m not turning pro. I’m not starting a band of other 60-year-olds reliving 1987. I just like playing. I like fumbling through a groove. I like figuring out a fill.
The moment it becomes a box to check, the joy drains a bit.
Same with ASL. I do want to become proficient. But I have time. If I skip a day because I’m tired or just not feeling it, I’m still going to get there. Fifteen minutes less on a random Tuesday isn’t the difference between fluency and failure.
Other tracked habits? Taking vitamins. Drinking water when I wake up. Journaling.
Those are already baked in. If I miss journaling one day, I don’t want the app telling me my streak is broken. Maybe I just didn’t have much to say. Maybe silence was the point. The mental health benefit of journaling shouldn’t come with the mild shame of a red “0.”
That’s the part I’m pushing back on.
In this phase of life—this ongoing “less is more” experiment—I’m trying to strip away unnecessary scaffolding. If a thing is truly part of me now, maybe it doesn’t need gamification. Maybe it doesn’t need a nudge.
Maybe doing it because I want to is enough.
I know habit trackers are helpful for a lot of people. They probably were helpful for me. They got me started. They kept me consistent.
But I don’t want to live inside a scoreboard.
If I play, I’ll play because it’s fun.
If I practice ASL, it’ll be because I’m curious.
If I journal, it’ll be because something is stirring.
Not because my phone says it’s time.
Less tracking.
More living.
You do you.