I Tried 100+ Productivity Systems, and This ONE Changed Everything.

I've encountered hundreds of productivity tools, hacks, and ideas, yet only this one worked for me. Pomodoro, time-blocking, calendar systems, second brain—you name it, I've tried it, and none of these approaches succeeded. No matter how sophisticated the system I designed was, it always led to procrastination.

The idea I'll share in this article might seem simple, but it could be transformational if you try it. Many multi-million dollar companies rely on this simple trick to hook you on their apps—for better or worse. I'll discuss this idea in detail, including examples of how it can be leveraged both positively and negatively and how you can use it in your own life to make significant changes.

The Idea

Have you ever built a Snapchat streak with your friend? That seemingly innocent score—which grows and counts the number of days you and your friend have sent each other a snap—is not so innocent. You may have experienced days when you almost forgot to send your friend a snap and felt a minor panic attack about losing your streak. This streak is the idea!

Humans have a psychological need for consistency and completion, which is termed "the streak effect." Several principles explain why this works, including the sunk cost fallacy, where we believe that the more time we've invested in a streak, the more motivated we become to continue it—regardless of whether it's good or bad. Another key principle at play is loss aversion; we feel the pain of losing something more intensely than the pleasure of gaining something. This triggers that panic when we're about to lose a Snapchat streak.

Now that we understand the concept, the following sections will explore positive and negative examples of how companies and apps use this technique. We can learn from the beneficial examples and apply them in our lives, and I'll share some examples of how I use this trick myself.

The Idea

The Evil

One of the bad examples discussed earlier is how Snapchat leverages this trick to keep users engaged on their platform. For social media companies, the number of active users and "stickiness" determines their profits. More people using the app means more people seeing the advertisements that run on the platform, which increases these companies' profits.

Similarly, many mobile games feature reward systems that offer virtual currency to users who log in daily. I see this trend in almost every mobile game nowadays. The more consecutive days you play without breaking the streak, your in-game rewards become larger.

Now that you know this concept, you need to be careful not to fall into the trap set by companies that try to use your psychology against you.

The Good

It's not all bad. Companies like Duolingo use the streak mechanism positively. For those unfamiliar with Duolingo, it is a language learning app that requires users to practice for at least 5 minutes daily, which builds a streak. This streak concept motivates users to maintain commitment and complete their language quizzes daily rather than risk breaking the chain. Similarly, many fitness apps leverage this mechanism to make users stick to their daily fitness commitment.

These examples show how we can apply this technique in our own lives. In the next section, I'll explain how I use this method for my reading goals and demonstrate other ways to implement it for virtually any habit you want to develop.

How To Use This Productivity System

I recently wanted to build a habit around reading books while cycling on a stationary bike. Though I was initially consistent with this routine, I occasionally broke it. I've been tracking my streak since I started using Apple Books on my iPad during my cycling sessions. I've set a daily time goal of 1 hour. Previously, I would often skip my cycling and reading sessions on weekends, dismissing them as "not a big deal." However, my desire to maintain my streak motivates me to continue even on weekends.

Streak Mechanism in Apple Books

Similarly, we can leverage this concept for many other activities. Various fitness apps can track your exercise routine and build streaks. One general-purpose app that works well for monitoring all kinds of habits is the Habitica app, available on the App Store.