I have a confession to make. I am a bit too organized. That’s not a secret to anyone who personally knows me but sometimes it feels like a real problem. That is until someone needs to know some type of information cough the husband cough, then surprise, surprise. Who do they turn to? 🤔😉

I thrive on routine, checklists, and planning in advance. I adore project management systems and when I learned to build spreadsheets to manage myself in Google Sheets? Game. Over. Staying organized helps my sanity and well-being and I don’t think I could go a day without any of my resources! 

But then enters my mental health. Having days where the anxiety lurks in a bit too much and it’s hard for me to do even the simplest of day-to-day responsibilities. What then? I’ve tried every Pinterest pin imaginable, downloaded various habit tracker apps, and even formed habit trackers to print out and have somewhere I would see every day thinking it would make it more manageable for me to check each task off. Nope, none of these supported me enough on the rough days and I felt at a loss.

HELLO, FINCH APP

Enter my fabulous therapist. She proposed I try an app called Finch. She uses it herself and highly recommends it. I had seen it before in my searches in the Google Play Store but it wasn’t as direct as I was looking for so I always scrolled on by it. I downloaded it and immediately fell in love with the platform. It combines daily checklists to keep you on track with the habits you want to cultivate and the pleasure of “raising” a little bird of your own! As someone who grew up playing video games and still loves the occasional game or puzzle now in my 30s, this was the ideal blend of what I never knew I needed.

WHAT CAN FINCH DO?

To begin, you create your very own bird. You give them a name, choose their pronouns (LOVE!), and pick their coloring. You also get to select an outfit and accessories for them, and you can purchase additional clothing for them along the way. Mine, of course, is appropriately dressed for baseball season since Spring Training is currently underway ⚾️

Upon opening the app, you start on the home screen which lists all of your daily habits. You can create different “journeys” for yourself with different habits in each to check off each day. For example, if you have personal habits, work habits, and home chores you want to add to your daily list, you can keep those all separated in different journeys. Each time you check off a task for the day, the app tracks how many times in a row you completed it and lets you know, which is a tremendous motivator for me to see that I’ve been consistent on something for weeks or almost a month in a row. You can also specify for each task if you want it to be at a particular time of day, day of the week, or even if it’s a daily, weekly, or monthly task. Bonus! You can also create a task to check off multiple times during the day. I like to do self-care checks within the app (another feature we’ll get to) three times a day-morning, mid-day, and before bed. I can schedule this to be checked off three times instead of having to create the same task three times. How convenient, right?

ADVENTURING

Another entertaining thing that keeps you motivated to check off tasks is for every task you complete, you give your bird “energy” to make it through the day. When they gain enough for the day, you send them on adventures to explore! ⚡️

The app has a list of various places you can have your bird visit to explore throughout the world. Each day, they take a “trip” through each place and bring back things they learned about it and its culture. Through these, you attain different personality points for your bird so they can evolve as they learn, too.

QUESTS

New in February 2024, quests! I opened my app one day and was introduced to this and I am all about it! The app now offers you a chance to earn a set amount of rainbow stones to spend on items. There are daily quests, or a few main objectives to complete each day, weekly quests which are cumulative goals from your daily quests, and special quests which are goals you aim to reach in time, such as visiting a certain number of locations.

MONTHLY EVENTS

Each month, the Finch app presents themed monthly events where each day you just check in to collect an item geared towards that event or collect more rainbow stones. It’s such an effortless way to earn stones to spend and it helps build your inventory with cute, seasonal items!

SHOP

So, I keep mentioning rainbow stones. But what in the world are they? Rainbow stones are the Finch app’s version of currency. You can earn them by completing adventures, quests, and monthly events as mentioned above, and in the shop! Checking into the shop daily earns you a certain amount of stones to add to your bank. With these stones, you can purchase clothing and accessories for your bird, household items, and additional coloring options. You can also purchase trips to travel and explore new locations in the shop.

TREE TOWN

Mental health is a community and to keep your mental health in check, you need that community. Finch allows you to share your account through a specialized friend code with your friends so you can give each other support within the app when they see fit and vice versa. Throughout the week you also get visitors, which are members of the Finch team, sending you love that you can also invite to your tree town!

➡️ Let’s be birb friends! Use my friend code PF2NYY4AEQ to add me to your tree town for some extra love and support! ⬅️

MICROPETS

You never have to travel alone on your adventures! The app also allows you to meet and equip yourself with micropets. They can keep you company on adventures and after a while, evolve into adults. Each monthly event you unlock a new micropet and can also hatch your own by completing a specific task seven times in a row. They are the cutest things! Fun tip: tap on the micropet when it’s on your screen. They make the most precious sounds!

WAIT, THERE’S MORE?!

Finch is a terrific habit tracker but as mentioned before, it’s also an impressive aid for your mental health. It offers several options within the app to help keep your anxiety, depression, etc. at bay if it strikes at any given moment.

GOAL IDEAS: Offers you an opportunity to create goals for yourself for that particular day to focus on from your current daily list, among other options.

BREATHE: I use this daily to get my mind right at the start of the day. It offers different breathing techniques proven to help ease anxious thoughts and relieve stress. There are also options to help regulate your breathing for a better night’s sleep and techniques to give you a boost of energy if that’s what you need!

SOUNDSCAPES: Different types of ambiance noises for when you need to focus. There are weather sounds, animal sounds, water, and nature sounds. Check out the Home Depot soundscape. It legitimately sounds like you are in the store if you close your eyes!

TIMERS: Offers a meditation timer and focus timer for different intervals of time. These are also two things I use often to start my day off right and to keep me focused on the current task at hand when I’m completing my morning journaling and manifestations. I love that both of these also come equipped with soundscapes if you choose to use them. I love turning on the outdoor nature sound when it’s a sunny morning and the rainy sound when it’s a cloudy day when journaling.

REFLECTIONS: This is where I complete my self-care check-in that I previously mentioned. The app has several different prompts in different categories to help you reflect on certain topics or goals you have for the day. There is also a free-form writing space where you can write to your heart’s content anything and everything you need to get off your mind.

QUIZZES: A variety of questions for educational purposes to evaluate where you are currently.

MOVEMENTS: An assortment of stretches and brief exercises you can do anywhere to keep you moving and motivated throughout your day!

ACT OF KINDNESS: Gives you ideas on how you can spread kindness through your community and ways to give kindness to yourself.

FIRST AID KIT: Offers you ways to ground yourself and slow things down when things start feeling like a bit too much. I love that it also links to the helplines available as a reminder that someone is always there to support you when you need it ❤️

THIS APP HAS TRULY BEEN A LIFESAVER FOR ME

There is so much you can do within this app that it’s difficult not to want to sign in every day and check in! I have been utilizing it for nearly a year now and have never had the urge to search for anything else as I have with other habits or mood trackers in the past. It covers everything I’ve always had to have multiple apps for in one place. A nice bonus of saving space on my phone! I’m forever grateful to my therapist for introducing me to this app and will forever suggest it to others searching as well!

Finch is 100% free but also offers a paid version for $39.99/year, with the option of a seven-day free trial to test it out before fully committing. With Finch Plus, you get FULL access to everything in the app. When you have the free version, you can see lock symbols on some things. These are included with your Plus subscription. I haven’t bitten the bullet yet for Plus but do plan on doing so in the future because there are some soundscapes and breathing techniques I would use if I could!

Find it on the app stores!

Google Play Store for Android

Apple Store for iPhone

Does Finch sound like something you would use for yourself? What kind of apps have worked for you in the past for tracking habits? Comment below or tag me on Instagram, @helloblondemoments, to share the love!