How far have you taken a streak? I’ve taken my Duolingo streak to 1167 days before quitting. I have a Bookly app streak that’s almost a year. I had several different streaks with my Apple Watch fitness tracking. My new Garmin watch tracks various metrics for steps and activity, but there’s also a small streak. Goodreads has my annual reading goal, which is a kind of streak. A vocabulary app I use monitors my usage and keeps my streak alive without me even noticing. Some streaks carry more weight, worming their way into my psyche. Others don’t darken my mood with anxiety, so how do I really know they exist?
Gamification permeates modern life. It has roots in video games and was quickly adopted by phone apps. Habit tracking apps generalize the streak ecosystem, allowing you to track virtually anything, from cooking your own meals to completing your daily burpees. When does it stop? For me, 2026 might be the year.
I’ve been more mindful this past year. I wrote more, scrolled less. Read around 40 books and DNFed about a dozen. Probably read dozens of New Yorkers front to back. Equally read dozens only for the fiction. Next year, we will take the reading and focus to the next level. I’m stepping away from streaks. I’ll still count things, as it seems ingrained in being human. To tally is to live. But I’ll no longer be beholden to an increasing number each day. I’ll focus on other metrics for success, such as happiness, learning, and mental health. After all, these streaks would end one day, like a bookmark left middle of a book on the bedside of a dying patient. Who cares how large it gets? It was transactional anyway.