I'm no good at streaks

It's very popular out there the notion of building a habit by taking the activity in question on practice it every day for a certain number of days.

It's embedded in many popular apps like Duolingo or Strava. I think it got popularized by the habit building experts out there and also due to the Seinfeld strategy.

You know the drill. To build a habit you have to take some time and practice every day for a little time initially. Then, you can start to increase the time and keep doing it until it becomes part of your routine.

In an ideal world we would all take something and doing it bit by bit until it becomes automatic, and we can move on with our improved lives.

But without talking too much about the drawbacks of streaks (and the negative stories of Duolingo's obsession with them) suffice it to say that it doesn't work that well for all of us.

For a weird reason I think it will work or not depending on the activity. But it works in seldom cases.

Sometimes, you don't really want to build a habit. You only want to know if you can do it or it's just a pipedream.

But regardless of the reason, it's important to know why you're doing what you're doing.

I've found that while streaks are a good tool to build discipline, they're not as cracked up as they make them look like.

And so, after trying them out several times over the last half decade or so, I've found something else.

Something that works for me and my particular personality.

Instead of religiously follow the "don't break the chain" advice, I abide by the "don't miss twice" rule.

Helpful for the same reason while accounting for human nature.