The visibility problem with habit apps
Most habit tracking apps fail because of friction and forgetting. You open the app, log the habit, close the app. If you forget to open the app, the streak breaks. The app isn't embedded in your daily workflow — it's adjacent to it.
Your browser is different. The average knowledge worker opens a new tab dozens to hundreds of times per day. That's dozens to hundreds of passive reminders, with zero extra effort from you.
How the habit tracker works in Pinodock
You create habits in the Habits panel — give each one a name and optionally a target frequency (daily, on specific days). Pinodock stores your completion history entirely on-device, in local browser storage. No account required, no sync, no server.
Each day, incomplete habits show as unchecked. Tap once to mark a habit done. That's the entire interaction — the simplest possible input for the most consistent possible behavior.
The dashboard pill
The new tab dashboard shows a compact progress indicator: 2/4 habits. This appears as a small clickable button below your focus input, visible every time you open a new tab. Clicking it navigates directly to the Habits panel so you can check off what you've done.
The pill only appears if you have habits set up — it's invisible to users who haven't created any, so there's no clutter for people who don't use it.
Streaks and history
Pinodock tracks your completion dates so you can see your streak (consecutive days completed) and look back at past weeks. Streaks are motivating not because of gamification, but because they make the cost of breaking visible. When you can see 18 days in a row, you're less likely to miss today.
chrome.storage.local — your device, only accessible to the extension. It's never transmitted anywhere. You can export it from Settings if you want a backup, or clear it entirely to start fresh.
What habits work well here
The best candidates are binary daily habits — things you either did or didn't do today:
- Morning exercise or walk
- Journaling
- Reading (even 10 minutes)
- Drinking enough water
- No social media before 10am
- Code review / deep work block
- End-of-day shutdown routine
Habits that work less well are vague or continuous ones ("be more productive", "eat better") — they don't lend themselves to a simple yes/no completion. Break those into specific, binary behaviors instead.
Pairing habits with the focus timer
Pinodock's Pomodoro timer and habit tracker share the same dashboard. A common workflow: open a new tab, see 0/3 habits, start a Pomodoro session to work through your morning routine, then check off habits as you complete them. The visual feedback of watching the pill change from 0/3 to 3/3 across a morning session is surprisingly satisfying.