Finch Motivates Me to Complete My to-Do List Without Shaming Me
It’s a potentially worrying sign of the times, but my mornings are dictated by my apps . On a typical day, I start by placing a Dunkin’ mobile order , checking my sales on Poshmark and rent on Pickle , and playing New York Times games before moving on to more serious work apps.
Last week I added a new app to my morning routine: Finch , which is sort of a to-do list mixed with a Tamagotchi. My ultimate goal with this whole morning app rotation is to counteract the call of social media and the resulting unproductive start to the day. I decided that this app would help me be even more productive by giving me structured goals and rewards for my actual responsibilities.
Finch is a little bird who rejoices at your success.
Finch is an app that gamifies your productivity. By completing daily tasks and marking them as completed in the app, you feed a little bird that grows and thrives based on how much you give it. This is a very cute concept. The more you achieve and interact with your bird, the more “adventures” it experiences, develops skills and achieves growth.
The app comes with preset tasks, and – I won’t lie – they were a little more basic than what I needed. They include things like “get out of bed” and “drink water.” I can imagine being in such a bad state that these little reminders (and the in-game rewards that come with completing them) would be helpful, so I found it nice but not helpful to me.
I kept some of them on my to-do list for easy wins, but was able to add other things I want to do daily, like “work out.” You can link completion of certain tasks to in-game challenges, earning certain prizes for, say, washing your face for seven days in a row. You can also set tasks to run weekly, monthly, or at any interval that suits you.
Finch offers motivation to work productively and without shame
The interface is really easy to use and understand, which I appreciate. All I have to do is open the app and click the checkmark next to the task to indicate that I have completed it. From there I get rewards like in-game currency, new traits for my bird, and can also buy her little outfits or whatever. Yes, it’s basic, but very relaxing and enjoyable.
I like it better than other productivity apps because it doesn’t shame you in any way. It’s exciting rather than stressful, and the game element is new and cute enough to keep things interesting. (Not to brag, but my bird almost grew from a baby to a toddler, all because I drank some water and washed myself.)
There is also no significant time investment. If all I wanted to do was check off items on my list, that would be fine. There are rewards for doing other activities—like doing breathing exercises or guided stretches, listening to soundscapes, recording daily reflections, and chronicling your overall emotional state—but no penalties for not doing them, so the gaming element is positive and not competitive or stressful.
It is clear that this is, first and foremost, a self-care app, but it is quite possible to add more specific tasks to your list. I spent my first week using it lightly, mostly relying on those early goals the app set, but now that I’ve gotten the hang of it (and my bird needs some cute new outfits), I’m going to add more of my work and home tasks. This will be especially useful as a cleaning checklist, as I have liked but not liked others I’ve tried .
The app is available on iOS and the Google Play store . It’s free and you can just use the free version, but for $39.99 a year you can access more exercises and purchases, and customize the little icons that appear next to your tasks. You get a seven-day free trial to see if you like it all, but it’s not really necessary. The free version does everything you need.