Is treating yourself like a Tamagotchi the key to nailing self-care?

The one self-care tool we haven't tried

I’ve struggled to prioritise wellness for years, but couldn’t have been more attentive to my Tamagotchi’s needs as a kid. Can gamified self-care apps help me stay on top of healthy habits?

As someone who struggles to both prioritise self-care and manage my time well, habits take a little longer to form for me.

I’ve tried alarms, daily reminders, writing lists, planning my day to the hour, and even recruited my friends and housemate to remind me to stay on top of my goals. But I still forget about them daily.

I’m somehow both too busy to go to the gym or even have a quick stretch session, yet always have time to watch multiple episodes of New Girl or scroll on my phone, so scheduling time for extra tasks feels like a lot. 

I attempted to make a conscious effort to use my Fitbit as more than just a watch, hoping that the long list of functions would help me better prioritise my sleep, workouts, water intake and eating.

And while the fitness tracker has great features to help you track everything you could need to help you focus on your overall wellness, I evidently am not as invested in my wellness as I should be, and just can’t get motivated by the prospect of beating my own sleep or step scores. 

After seeing a kid deeply locked into her Tamagotchi on the bus and remembering how dedicated I was to taking care of the tiny pixelated pet in 2008, I wondered if treating myself as a digital pet-type-thing could the key to staying on top of my self-care.

So I downloaded a bunch of free wellness apps to test my theory:

The closest app to a physical Tamagotchi that I tried, I kept a virtual baby bird alive by tracking my daily habits. Image: iStock

Finch

The closest app to a physical Tamagotchi that I tried, I kept a virtual baby bird alive by tracking my daily habits. 

After declaring my wellness priorities and struggles, the app gave me a checklist of goals to complete each day in order to help the ‘birb’ grow. 

The app’s widget was the thing to help me to stay on top of my habits – the little bird staring at me whenever I unlocked my phone as a reminder me to log my activity, and therefore actually carry out the habit.

The daily goals the app generated were a bit more basic than I was aiming to accomplish, including getting out of bed, brushing my teeth and washing my face. Image: Getty

The daily goals the app generated were a bit more basic than I was aiming to accomplish, including getting out of bed, brushing my teeth and washing my face. But it did remind me to drink water and fit exercise into my day so that I could check them off, and I added my own goals to work out and journal.

Balance

This app usually costs a whopping $106.99 per year, but offers a one-year free trial, so if like me, you’re also slacking on your New Year’s resolution to be more on top of your self-care, the year may be all you need to establish some healthy habits. 

I struggle to switch off for long enough to meditate, and usually give up on trying after scrolling through YouTube video after YouTube video of a jarring voice guiding me through my thoughts.

Balance offers different meditations for different times of the day.

Balance offers different meditations for different times of the day. The end-of-day ones were really helpful to get my brain to quieten down before bed, and the procrastination ones were surprisingly effective during my workday. 

The daily streak feature also tapped into that competitiveness many of us oddly need to motivate us to stay on top of our self-care.

Apple’s Journal app

I simply haven’t looked at any app Apple’s automatically added to my phone since about 2020. 

The app feels like the best way for me to actually make a habit of journaling. Image: Pexels

But I figured I should save my friend from having to listen to a 10-minute voice note I immediately feel dramatic to have sent, and just write down my frustrations first. 

The app feels like the best way for me to actually make a habit of journaling, sending me notifications on my chosen days to remind me to write, and keeping me engaged through the streak feature.

It’s a bit too smart for me, with the option to let your phone suggest moments to write about from your photos, workouts, music and more. You can also add photos and audio to your entries, which feels like a good way to help my deeply forgetful brain to actually remember moments. 

Sleep Cycle tracks your sleep and sounds an alarm to wake you up when you’ll feel the most rested.  Image: Unsplash

Sleep Cycle

I thought a more in-depth version of Fitbit’s sleep tracker would motivate me to go to sleep earlier, but after completing the 7-day free trial, I clearly just value that extra reading/ phone scroll time too much. 

Sleep Cycle tracks your sleep and sounds an alarm to wake you up when you’ll feel the most rested. 

I did love the range of alarm sound options, so I don’t have to stick to the jarring Apple alarm tunes that almost induce a panic attack every morning, but I just couldn’t get that invested in my sleep health.

Overall, treating myself like my primary school Tamagotchi has strangely helped me to remember and stay on top of my newly formed habits, and the promise of a daily streak or keeping a virtual pet alive and happy regretably does motivate me to prioritise my wellness, so I guess gamifying life really does work. 

Originally published as Is treating yourself like a Tamagotchi the key to nailing self-care?