An app for the Atomic Habits way of building habits

The idea in one paragraph

The book’s best-known suggestion is to focus on identity rather than outcomes: instead of “I want to finish a book”, think “I am becoming a reader”, and treat each small action as a vote for that person. Small habits compound, and the votes gradually change what you believe about yourself. If you want the fuller explanation in our words, read identity-based habits.

Why ordinary habit trackers don’t quite fit

Most habit trackers are checklists with a streak counter. They are good at answering “did you do it today?” and silent on “who is this for?”. After reading about identity, that gap is noticeable: the app keeps asking about the chain, while the idea you just read asks you to think about the person.

Streak-only apps also clash with the forgiving side of the method. If one missed day resets a 60-day chain to zero, the app is telling you that a single bad day outweighs two months of good ones — the opposite of the idea.

How MakeYou puts it into practice

Identities come first

When you set up MakeYou you start by choosing who you are becoming — a Reader, a Founder, an Athlete, a calmer person, or your own. Every habit belongs to one of them, and the Today screen always shows the identity above the habit.

Each completed habit is a vote

Marking a habit done is called casting a vote, and the vote is credited to its identity. Over weeks, the progress screen shows the evidence for each identity: a year heatmap, streaks and an identity score.

Small is allowed

You set the duration of each habit, and two minutes is a perfectly valid vote. The app never asks you to “level up” a habit before you are ready.

Cues: when and where

The vote builder lets you write a habit as a sentence — who, what, when and how often — and add a cue such as “after I wake up” or “at my desk at 9”. A reminder at that time, or an alarm for a wake-up habit, makes the cue hard to forget.

Missed days without guilt

You can mark a day as deliberately skipped, so a planned rest day doesn’t break a streak. When a habit has become part of who you are, you can retire it as “integrated”: its history is kept and your daily list stays short.

Reflection and lessons

A short daily reflection asks whether today moved you closer to who you want to be, with a private journal for anything longer. The Mindset tab adds a daily lesson, new lessons every Monday, book picks and your own notes.

A simple Atomic Habits tracker setup

If you are starting from scratch, this setup works for most people:

1. Create one identity you care about most right now.
2. Add two habits for it: one tiny daily habit and one slightly bigger habit three times a week.
3. Write a cue for each — the moment in your day it will follow.
4. Turn on a reminder for the tiny habit.
5. Cast the vote straight after doing it; reflect for one minute in the evening.
6. On Sunday, look at the identity’s week and adjust one thing.

After two or three weeks, add a second identity if the first feels steady. The free plan covers 5 habits across 3 identities, which is plenty for this approach. Our step-by-step guide to building a habit covers the details.

What MakeYou deliberately doesn’t do

• No confetti, badges or leaderboards — the evidence is the reward.
• No ads and no selling of your data.
• No pressure to track twenty things: the free plan’s limits nudge you to focus.

MakeYou is a native app for iPhone and Android, made in India by Diloni Technologies. See the full habit tracker features or pricing in India.