Building the habit: the first thirty days
Where the difference is made between using the app for a week and keeping it up for thirty days. A plan broken into weeks.
6 min read
The hard part of a breathing practice isn't learning the technique, it is keeping it up. Tools like the streak, milestones, programs and reminders exist for exactly that. Here is how to use them, week by week.
Week one: get to know one technique
This week the aim is learning, not scoring well.
Take the technique suggested in the intake and do it for a week. Read its tutorial from start to finish, and don't skip the hands-on round.
Keep the length short: two minutes. Two minutes finished every day is worth far more than ten minutes done once.
Set the reminder today. If you put it off, it doesn't get set.
This week's measure: a session on at least five of the seven days.
Week two: start making sense of the measurements
Once the technique settles, start looking at the report. Open Detailed report and see which component is low.
For most people the first thing to improve is rhythm match: learning to wait for the moment the circle starts shrinking takes a few sessions.
Stretch the length a little. The lit band on the slider will already have shifted to suit you.
This week's measure: your average score in the same technique rising against last week. The weekly summary shows this directly.
Week three: add a second technique
You now know one technique. A second should have unlocked — tap one of the locked cards and look at the shortest way.
Split the two: use one for the morning and the other for the evening. The app already suggests by time of day.
This week's measure: at least three sessions in each of two different techniques.
Week four: set up a program
This week is the real step. Profile → Programs, and start the twenty-eight day program.
Here is what makes a program different: a streak asks "did you do something today", while a program asks "how many days have you done the same thing for the same length". The measured effects come from the second one.
While a program runs, your reminder tells you the program's day and that technique moves to the top of the technique list.
This week's measure: completing the program's first seven days without a miss.
The days you miss
You will miss days. The problem isn't missing one, it is quitting after you do.
If you missed one day, come back the next with a short session. Your streak may have reset, but your longest streak stays on record.
If you missed several days in a row and you have a program, the program may have ended. An ended program goes to your history and how far you got stays there — it isn't wiped.
If you know you'll be away for a week, turn on holiday mode: your streak is preserved. But an active program ends, so do it knowing that.
At the end of thirty days
The program's finishing screen tells you how many days, how many sessions and how many minutes you did. The program breakdown shows which days you missed, which day of the week is hard for you, and how your scores changed from the first half to the second.
That breakdown is the best guide for your next program: knowing that "Tuesdays always slip" means putting a separate reminder on Tuesday.
The real trick to keeping it up
On hard days, shorten the length, don't skip the day. A two-minute session completes the day, keeps the streak and completes the program's day.
What breaks a habit isn't a bad session, it is a day with none at all.