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Quitting, with a second person

Why a quit is a different shape from a habit · 3-minute read

Quitting alone is an argument with yourself, and you lose those. The version that works has one other person in it — not to police you, just to be someone the run of clean days belongs to as well.

The pact: no scrolling after eleven. You mark it; your friend can correct it.
The reward: thirty days → spend what you saved, together.

A quit pact never asks

This is the part most trackers get wrong, and it is a real difference in how Pacts behaves. A habit you are doing asks you each day whether you did it. A habit you are breaking does not: it generates no daily card, it stays out of every “3 of 5 marked today” count, and a day with nothing on it counts as clean. Nothing is written on your behalf.

It has exactly one affordance: I slipped. One tap, one honest row, and the count starts again. The alternative — being asked “did you smoke today?” every single evening — makes the app a daily reminder of the thing you are trying to stop thinking about.

What it tracks instead of a streak

Clean days. A quit is measured by the run of days with no slip on it, and that number is kept apart from the kept-rate maths on the rest of your pacts — so three clean weeks never drag a scoreboard down, and one honest tap on a bad Tuesday isn’t punished twice.

Things people quit with a pact

The app ships a whole Habits to break category you can start from without typing: no smoking, no vaping today, no alcohol on weekdays, no energy drinks, no sugar, no sugary drinks, no reels after 10pm, no betting apps, no nail-biting, no swearing, no snoozing the alarm, no gaming on school nights. Or write your own — the only rule that matters is that someone could glance at it and say yes or no. How to write one that sticks →

Pacts is a habit app, not a health service, and it gives no medical advice: it holds the commitment and the record, nothing more. If you are quitting something that needs support, get it from a clinician — and use the pact for the part it is good at.

The second person is the point

Whoever you invite sees the run you are on. They can correct a mark, and they can send a one-tap cheer — which on day nine of anything is worth more than it sounds. A missed day is never scolded here either; the app has no shame framing anywhere, and a fresh start is one tap away.

Two people is free, forever. So the only thing this costs you is deciding what the last day was.

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Other shapes a pact takes