Habit streaks that survive days off
Why a streak that breaks on every day off punishes you, and how a schedule-aware habit tracker counts streaks.
A streak should measure whether you kept the promise you made, not whether you did something every single day. If your habit is not meant for every day, the days off should never count against you.
The problem with daily-only streaks
Many habit trackers count consecutive calendar days. That works for brushing your teeth. It does not work for going to the gym on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, or for a language lesson three times a week. On Tuesday the streak breaks, or you are nudged to tick the box anyway just to keep a number alive.
A streak that punishes rest teaches the wrong lesson. It rewards ticking boxes, not building the habit you wanted.
How Flamuno counts a streak
You choose when each habit is due, and the streak follows that choice:
- Every day: consecutive days with a check-in.
- Weekdays: consecutive Monday-to-Friday days. Weekends neither count nor break it.
- Specific days: consecutive picked days. The other days neither count nor break it.
- A few times a week: consecutive weeks, Monday to Sunday, in which you reached your number.
For example, a habit set for Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If you check in on all three, the streak grows by three. Tuesday and Thursday are invisible to it. Miss a Wednesday and the streak ends, because that was a day you chose.
Today never breaks a streak
A day is not missed until it is over. Today never breaks a streak, so you have until the end of the day (or the end of the week for a few-times-a-week habit) to check in. Your best streak is always kept, even after a reset.
If you do slip
One miss is not the end of a habit. A UCL study of how habits form found that missing a single opportunity did not materially affect the process (Lally et al., 2010; see how long it takes to form a habit).
On the free plan, a missed scheduled day resets the current streak, and your best streak stays. With Pro, once you have a streak of 2 or more you can repair it from the Today screen, up to 3 times a month. The free plan has everything else about schedules, goals, notes and export; see Pricing for the plans.
Try it in a minute
Add a habit, pick "specific days" and choose the days you really mean. The steps are in Getting started, and the full rules are in Schedules.
Try it for yourself
Free on Android, no ads. Pro has a 7-day free trial.
