Why These 7 Habits? The Indie Hacker's Guide to Boring Basics

When we built BoringBasics, we made a controversial decision: no custom habits.

Everyone tracks the same 7 habits. You can’t add your own. You can’t remove any. You can’t negotiate with yourself about what “counts.”

This isn’t a limitation — it’s the feature.

The Problem with Customization

Most habit trackers let you create unlimited habits. Sounds great, right? More flexibility, more personalization.

But here’s what actually happens:

You add too many habits — “I’ll track meditation, journaling, gratitude, cold showers, reading, exercise, healthy eating, no phone before bed…”
You negotiate with yourself — “Maybe I’ll just track the easy ones today”
You change your habits — “Actually, let me swap meditation for something else”
You quit — The app becomes a guilt machine

We’ve all been there.

The Boring Solution

BoringBasics takes a different approach: 7 fixed habits, chosen by the community, backed by real advice from successful indie hackers.

No negotiation. No customization. No excuses.

Here are the 7 habits and why we chose them:

Business Habits

Deep Work — Close X, phone down, brain up. The foundation of getting anything meaningful done.
Ship — Code is still required. Ideas are worthless without execution.
Publish — So people notice how cool you are. Building in public compounds over time.

Health Habits

Clean Eating — Temptations everywhere. Your body is the hardware that runs your brain.
Zero Alcohol — Future you says thanks. Clear mind, better sleep, more energy.
Train — Strength or cardio, pick your poison. Physical health enables mental performance.
Sleep Well — Boring, but proven. Everything else falls apart without good sleep.

Why These Specific Habits?

Each habit is backed by a tweet from a successful indie hacker who’s built real businesses. Not productivity gurus. Not life coaches. Real builders who ship products and make money.

We didn’t invent these habits. We curated them from people who’ve proven they work.

The Honor System

Here’s the other controversial part: we don’t verify anything.

You self-report your habits. There’s no screenshot proof, no GPS tracking, no Apple Health integration. Just you and your word.

Why? Because:

Verification is friction — The more steps, the less you’ll do it
Cheating is boring — If you lie to yourself, you’re only hurting yourself
Public accountability works — Your profile is public, your leaderboard rank is public

The honor system isn’t naive — it’s intentional. We trust you to be honest because lying to a habit tracker is the most boring form of self-sabotage.

The Leaderboard Effect

When everyone tracks the same habits, you can actually compare progress. The leaderboard ranks members by 30-day consistency:

Check all 7 habits daily = 7 points
Do that for 30 days = 210 points max
Your rank is public on your profile

This creates healthy competition without the toxicity. You’re not competing on who has the most habits — you’re competing on who’s most consistent with the basics.

Getting Started

Ready to stop negotiating with yourself?

Sign in with X
Pay $5 (forever, no subscription)
Start tracking the 7 habits
Climb the leaderboard

No setup. No configuration. No decision fatigue.

Just boring basics, done consistently.

Deep-dive articles on each habit coming soon — subscribe to our RSS feed to get notified when they’re published.