Paper or app: which habit tracker suits you?
By 40585 Labs, makers of Corenk · Updated
Choose paper if you want your week in sight and a moment away from your phone. Choose an app if you need reminders or your routines change a lot. We make both, a printable page and an app with the same table, so we have no reason to tell you there is one right answer.
What paper does well
- It stays in sight. A page on the fridge reminds you every time you walk past, without an alert.
- It has no distractions. Ticking a box never leads to your messages.
- It starts clean. A new page each week means last week's gaps are not on it.
- It needs nothing. No charging, no updates, no account.
Where paper falls short
- It stays at home. If it is on the fridge, it is not with you at work.
- It does not remind you of a time. A 7 pm routine only gets remembered if you happen to look.
- It has to be rewritten. Routines that repeat go back on the page by hand each week, and a page has limited room.
- It does not count. Streaks and longer patterns are yours to work out.
What an app does well
- It is with you. The tracker is wherever your phone is.
- It can remind you. A notification arrives at the time you chose.
- It repeats on its own. Set a routine once and it comes back on the right days.
- It keeps count. Streaks and history need no arithmetic.
Where an app falls short
- It is out of sight until you open it. Icons are easy to ignore.
- It lives on your phone. Opening the tracker can turn into ten minutes of something else.
- Notifications wear off. After a while, they are easy to swipe away unread.
- Setup can take over. Tuning an app can start to feel like progress when it is not.
How to decide
- You spend your day in one place: try paper.
- You are often away from home or work shifts: try an app.
- You forget things at particular times: try an app, for the reminders.
- You want less time on your phone: try paper.
- You have given up on apps before: try paper, as something different.
- You have given up on notebooks before: try an app, or a printed page with no blank-page problem.
Questions
Is a paper habit tracker better than an app?
Neither is better for everyone. Paper suits people who want the week in sight and a phone-free moment. An app suits people who need reminders or whose routines change often.
Can I use both a paper tracker and an app?
Yes, but keep one as the record. Writing every routine down twice is the sort of chore that makes people stop.
How long should I try one before switching?
Give it about two weeks. That is enough to find out whether you keep coming back to it, and a weekly page costs you very little to try.
The cheapest way to find out
Print our free weekly habit tracker and use it for two weeks. If you keep coming back to it, you have your answer. If not, you have spent one sheet of paper. How to make a weekly habit tracker shows you how to fill it in.
Corenk, our app, is available for iPhone, iPad and Android, with your week as one table in the same hand-drawn style. More about Corenk.