Ever made a goal, and then quit even trying on it after a few days? Most of us have done exactly that. Whether we’re trying to give up a bad habit or pick up a new one, to do something more or stop doing something so often, it’s incredibly hard to change our ways. For all of us. We need a bit more encouragement to actually stick with it.
Say you want to go running every day. You could chain yourself down to your treadmill, but that wouldn’t help you very much. How about creating a mental chain to remind yourself of the number of days you’ve kept your commitment, which will make you not want to break that chain of commitment? That’s what Chains.cc is for. It’s a simple yet nicely designed web app to help you stay motivated by seeing how long you’ve kept at your commitments.
Don’t Break the Chain!
Jerry Seinfield, the well-known comedic from the TV show Seinfield, had a unique productivity system. He’d purposed to write every day, so he got a wall calendar and marked a big x on each day that he wrote. After a few days, you’d have a chain, a succession of days that you’d kept your promise to yourself. Seinfield told Brad Isaac:
“Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain. Don’t break the chain.”
Nowadays, you might look at your browser or smartphone more than your wall, and you’ve likely not bought a new wall calendar in years. Chains.cc is a free web app that takes a novel approach to this productivity trick by letting you quickly mark the days you’ve kept your commitments, and even share them with your friends online. It’s not a to-do list, it’s a done list, a way to see what you’ve done and how often you did it.
Chains.cc's homepage
Get Committed
Chains.cc is a free too and simple to use, so there’s no reason not to give it a shot. You can signup with your Facebook account or with your own chosen username and password. Moments later, you’ll see the account setting screen, where you set your personal time zone, language, real name, and email address (and can, oddly, change the password right after you created the account. Once you’re done, save the settings at the bottom of the form. You’ll then need to click the My Chains link at the top left, as, oddly again, it simply saves these settings rather than sending you on into the app. This is one small fit-and-finish area that could be streamlined in the app, so just watch out for it while you’re getting started.
Add extra info, then select "My Chains" to get started
Now you’re ready to start jotting down your goals, known as Chains. You’ll have one already created; just double-click its tab to enter the thing you want to keep up with. Then, click the circles underneath by each recent day that you’ve done (or perhaps, not done) the activity. You could create chains for things you want to do (Exercise for at least x minutes), or for things you don’t want to do (Don’t read Hacker News during the day). Click the small Add New Chain button on the top right to add more things to track, and drag and drop the tabs to get them in the order you want.
Add chains and get started tracking your activities quickly
There’s a few settings you can tweak on chains. Click a tab and click the Settings link to open the settings pane, where you can choose days you don’t want to do this activity, change the tab’s color, and choose a different skin for your chain other than the default color blobs. You could pick a running track for exercise, a piano for music practice, or any of the other 13 options to customize it like you like. Sure, it’s not important, but it will make checking off things you accomplished each day more obvious without having to read your tabs.
Customize your chains to look the way you want
And that’s it. So all you need to do, now, is to visit Chains.cc daily, and click the circles for the activities you did (or didn’t) do that day. And you’re done. You can login to their mobile site from your smartphone to check off the things you’ve done on the go, and can easily fill in things you completed other days that you didn’t login. It’s simple and obvious.
Staying Motivated
Keeping up with what you’ve done is easy, and it should be motivating to see your chains building and know how long you’ve stayed on track. The Overview page is an even better way to stay motivated. You can get a quick heads-up view of how each of your activities are going, and can see some quick fun facts on the top that are auto-generated from your chains. It’s nothing amazing, but it could definitely be motivating.
And in the back of your head, you'll know you want to keep exercising for far more than just those 6 days in a row.
You can also create or join groups to help you and your friends (or other random people online) stay motivated. It’s much easier to run a marathon if you’ve got friends running it with you, as you don’t want to quit in front of them. You can create a group about anything you want, and make it public in the Chains.cc directory, or private for you to just share with your friends.
Create new groups to share your determination with others (sorry, Rovio)
Whether a public or private group, you can join them all just as easily. Just select which of your own chains is applicable to this group, and add it on the right. Now, you’ll see your own list along with others, helping you see their progress, and hopefully your own progress will encourage your friends to keep at it. It’s a tiny bit of accountability and group work that just might make your challenges a tad more fun and committing.
See progress others are making on their commitments (hey, I'm not the only one that doesn't sleep enough!)
Conclusion
Honestly, nothing can really force you to stick with your goals. If you’re not going to do it, you’re not going to do it, and that’s just it. Chains.cc can provide a bit of motivation when you need some, the passive motivation that tells you, yes, you’ve done this before, and you can keep at it. You can. And that’s something all of us need from time to time.
If you’ve been looking for a great way to keep track of things you’ve done, or how long you’ve kept commitments, or almost anything else, Chains.cc is a nice tool to do just that. It’s nicely designed, works great for the most part, and is free.
And for me, I think I should start taking it up on the challenge to sleep earlier!