Getting started
Start with tasks. When tasks are part of your day, add one routine. Then track one number and answer one question. Set a goal last.
It’s tempting to set everything up on the first day: every goal, every routine, every task you can think of. But then you have to learn everything at once, and it’s easy to give up within a week. If you add one part at a time, each part becomes a habit before you add the next one.
There’s no schedule. Move to the next step when the one you’re on feels easy, not before. If you’ve been using Glide for a while, this might help you decide what to try next.
1. Put your tasks in
This step is about one habit: putting things in Glide instead of keeping them in your head. Add whatever you’re trying to remember. New tasks are due today. If a task is for another day, pick that day. Check off tasks on Today or Tasks as you finish them. Leave routines, goals and the journal for later.
At first, opening the app every time something comes up can feel awkward. Over time, many people start saving tasks up and adding them all at once, during a natural break.
When a task is hard to start, tap its timer button and work until the timer ends. You don’t have to finish the task. You just have to start it.
Ready for the next step when you’re opening Glide most days, and putting things into it instead of keeping them in your head, on scraps of paper, or nowhere at all.
2. Add one routine
Pick three or four steps you already do most mornings or evenings, and make them a routine. It shows up on Today every day. Do it right after something you already do, like making coffee or brushing your teeth, instead of finding a new time for it. The thing you already do will remind you.
Your routine doesn’t have to be perfect on the first day. A routine you actually do is better than a perfect one you skip, and you can change it whenever you want.
Ready for the next step when you’re doing the routine most days and it doesn’t feel like a burden.
3. Track one number, answer one question
Once your routine feels familiar, add a metric: a number that shows how you’re really doing, like hours slept. Then add one reflection question, like “What went well today?”. Numbers show what happened. Your answers help you see why.
The week strip on Today and your journal fill in from these. After a few weeks, they show you how things are really going.
Ready for the next step when the number feels useful, and you sometimes read back what you wrote.
4. Set a goal
When there’s something you want to change, measure it with a number your routine already tracks. For example: how much you sleep on average, how often you stretched, or how many evenings you wrote. Glide shows whether your current pace will get you there.
Goals come last because a goal is only as clear as the numbers behind it. After a few weeks of numbers, you can set a target based on your real weeks.
Start with less
Glide doesn’t limit how many routines or goals you can have. But every routine and goal takes some of your attention each day, and most of us think we have more attention to spare than we really do. It usually helps to start with one or two, and add more when you feel you have room.
Some people find several short routines easier than one long one. Short routines are easier to remember, and there’s less time to get distracted in the middle.
A note on pace
These steps aren’t a schedule. Some people use only tasks for months, and that’s fine. The point isn’t to get through the steps quickly. The point is to build something that helps you.