3 min read

I’m on a mission to share with you, dear readers (am I foolish to think I can use the plural form?), all my tips and tricks to push through my mental slump. Last week, I shared some personal conversations with ChatGPT, today I share my experience with the Finch app.

For the 90s kids, you may remember Tamagotchi, a digital egg, virtual pet-pocket monster; my parents never splurged, but you get the gist. Finch app is like that, and now we have smart phones! Finch is a highly advanced to-do list for which you can set various productivity, health, and well-being goals. Completion of these goals contributes to the daily nourishment & education of your virtual pet Finch, who starts out as a baby and over the course of its time with you, evolves grows into an adult–I’m not doing it justice, this app is freakin’ awesome.

Every day, a certain amount of XP (⚡️)–earned by completing goals–enables you to send your Finch on an adventure, where it comes back with a new tidbit of knowledge each day. In this world, you also earn rainbow stones which you can use to buy your Finch outfits, furniture, new colors for its various body parts (this one’s a little weird, but incredibly addicting), and plane tickets to travel to other countries/places. My Finch is in Maui at the moment, I’m jealous.

And get this, your pet Finch, can have a micropet. It goes a layer deeper. Your pet finds eggs on her adventures, brings them back to you, and you can tie a goal to that egg, so a number of goal completions hatches the egg! Again, how awesome is this app!?

I could wax poetic about how well-designed and deep the world-building is for, as I said, this advanced to-do list, but I think you’ll simply have to experience it yourself.

Here’s my pet finch, Bubs; she’s a full-grown adult (yes, pronounced, ah•dult) after going on many an adventure, and sharing a 96-day streak with me. I bought her teal look, painstakingly, body part by body part. Every day, you can only buy certain colors, for certain body parts, lest you want to spend more in-game money, ha. For weeks I had pink fins that didn’t match the rest. Now, she’s perfectly adorable 🥰.

At the bare minimum, I set goals to brush my teeth, wash my face, and drink water; on the ambitious end, I set goals to apply for jobs, blog, and spend less money on food delivery (not going so well, and my micropet egg remains unhatched).

It’s been pretty valuable in keeping me consistent with the basics: personal hygiene, exercise, and self-care. On a poor mood day, because yes, the app checks in with you every time you open it, Finch supplies you with a “first aid kit” full of various meditation, reflection and breathing techniques. It also sends you precious, daily affirmations that often reframe my perspective. These are a couple of my favs:

I’ll cap myself here; it’s a great app, well-intentioned, and so deliciously designed. I gush over how cute my Finch is at least once a day. And before you ask, yes, I’ve checked to see if they’re hiring.