(This page, a review posted on the previous Habithacker site, is going to get an update soon. Illustrations not showing currently.)
You can save yourself the trouble of reading this review by just buying the program. Don’t trust me? Then answer the following questions:
Do you own an iphone? (If the answer is no, purchase one and then proceed to the next question. If the answer is yes, buy the program or…)
Are you a flybaby who has customized zones? Yes? Buy the program.
Are you a former flybaby who cried because of inbox clutter? Yes? Buy the program.
Do you not know what a flybaby is…but wish you had a system for keeping your house clean and clutter-free? Yes? Buy the program.
Are you enjoying this website but think it’s a hassle to subscribe or check in every day? Yes? Buy the program.
Am I leaving anyone out? Yes? Buy the program.
The home screen on HomeRoutines, a $4.99 iphone program.
I’m excited by this iphone app by a company called Wunderbear. Perhaps if I’d had it a year ago I never would have started habithacker. It’s just that good. I happily plunked down my $4.99, and even though that’s a bit more than the average iphone program costs, it’s worth it.
HomeRoutines essentially contains repeating sets of checklists gathered into labeled routines. If you were to use HomeRoutines as your BOP (Brain on Paper…see Nest: Day 8), you might have a routine labeled “Morning” into which you’d add “polish your place,” “shovel your shitspot,” and “lick your wounds” (oops, sorry, guess that last one’s just for me). For each task you check off, you get a gold star. Call me an ex-Midwestern-Lutheran, but heck, any time I get a gold star, I’m happy. Once you’ve finished all tasks in the routine, a gold star appears next to “Morning” and bob’s-your-uncle. You can have as many routines as you wish, so you might add routines for “Evening”, “Afternoon”, “Post-coital”, “Pre-menstrual”, and so on.
There are additional sections, as well. One allows you to add a note (daily reminder) to each day of the week. This lets you designate routines tied to a specific day such as Monday’s Half-Assed Housekeeping Hour, Wednesday weigh-ins, and creative Sundays.
There’s a simple to-do list included, too. Because I use Remember the Milk (review to come), I don’t use this particular feature . However, especially if you want to commit to doing just one or two important items each day, this is a nice bonus. According to the HomeRoutines website, an upcoming version of the program will give you both “Today” and “Another Day” to-do lists so you can track future to-dos, without sacrificing the gold star you’ll receive for checking off what’s due today.
Next to a smiley face icon is a category called Accomplishments-. It contains a list of everything you’ve checked off, and is useful when you ask yourself at 10 pm…”just what did I do all day, anyway?” This list clears itself at midnight.
One of my favorite features of HomeRoutines is its Focus Zone feature, akin to flylady’s zone missions and similar to my FocusHocus postings (which come later in habithacking life). Each week you can concentrate on cleaning up a different area of your house. HomeRoutines follows flylady zone schedules (for instance, April 5-9, 2010 concentrates on Zone 2, the kitchen), but you can change zones and the tasks within them to fit your house and lifestyle. I love this dedication to customization.
Finally, HomeRoutines sports its own timer, so you won’t overwork your newly productive self. And what a timer it is! Its finish-line music makes you feel as if you’ve just won a gazillion bucks simply by shoveling your shitspot for 15 minutes. My only regret is that you can’t set this basic timer for anything but 15 minutes. But that’s a tiny quibble.
Are you convinced you need this? If you need more information, HomeRoutines website is packed with detailed instructions, screenshots, and examples. And the developers run a blog with lots of good productivity tips, too.
HomeRoutines, $4.99. Highly recommended for anyone with an iphone. Even worth getting an iphone just to run it.
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