How to Turn Your iPhone Reminders App into a Habit Tracker

Because you don’t need another app — you need something that actually works with your real life.

Let’s be honest: building habits is hard enough. You don’t need a fancy color-coded app, a 17-step onboarding process, or a graph that silently judges you when you forget to drink water.

You already have everything you need on your phone.
It’s called Reminders, and yes — the same place you jot down “pick up dog food” can double as a clean, simple habit tracker that you’ll actually use.

This guide will walk you step-by-step through setting up Reminders to support the habits you’re trying to build… without adding more noise, more pressure, or more “shoulds.”

Grab your phone. Let’s make this easy.

Step 1: Get clear on which habits actually matter

Before we start tapping buttons, pause and ask yourself:

“What are the small, repeatable actions that help me feel like my healthiest, most grounded self?”

Not the habits Instagram says you should have.
Not the habits you keep telling yourself you’ll start “next Monday.”

Pick 3–7 small habits that matter right now — not for your ideal fantasy version of life.

Try things like:

• Drink a glass of water

• Take medication/supplements

• Move your body for 10 minutes

• Journal for 5 minutes

• Quick evening reset (kitchen, living room, whatever makes mornings suck less)

• Reach out to one person you care about

• Read a few pages

Write these down somewhere so you’re not winging it mid-setup.

Step 2: Create your “Habits” home base

We want everything in one place — simple, clean, and easy to find.

1. Open Reminders

2. Tap Add List

3. Name it something like:

• “Daily Habits”

• “Wellness Habits”

• “My Routines”

4. Pick a color and icon that feels encouraging, not stressful. Your nervous system counts this as data.

5. Tap Done

Boom. You now have a dedicated spot for your habit system.

Step 3: Add each habit as its own reminder

This is where we start building the structure.

1. Open your new Habits list

2. Tap New Reminder

3. Type your habit in a helpful, not shamey, tone — think coaching, not criticism:

• “Drink a glass of water”

• “Take meds”

• “Move for 10 minutes”

• “Journal for 5 minutes”

4. Tap the i / Details button to open settings

5. Tap Done

Repeat for all your habits.
Each one gets its own reminder so you can check it off individually.

Step 4: Make habits automatic with repeating reminders

Consistency doesn’t come from willpower — it comes from removing the mental load.

For each habit:

1. Tap the habit → Details

2. Turn on Remind me on a day

3. Turn on Repeat

4. Choose:

• Every Day for daily habits

• Every Week for weekly tasks (budgeting, laundry, meal planning)

• Custom for realistic schedules like Mon/Wed/Fri

This makes the habit recycle itself after you check it off, so you never have to recreate anything.

Step 5: Add timing that matches your actual life (not the fantasy one)

If you set “Drink water” for 6:00 AM and you’re barely conscious until 7:30, you’re going to swipe it away aggressively.

Make notification timing work with your rhythm:

1. Tap the habit → Details

2. Turn on At a Time

3. Choose a realistic time:

• Morning habits → 7:30–9:00 AM

• Midday habits → 11:00–2:00 PM

• Evening habits → 7:30–10:00 PM

💡 Tip: Stagger notifications by a few minutes so you don’t get blasted with 7 habits at once. Your brain will ignore them all out of spite.

Step 6: Organize by morning, midday, and evening (optional but lovely)

If you want a little structure — without going full Type A spreadsheet mode — you have two options:

Option A: Tags

A clean, simple way to categorize habits.

Use tags like:

• morning

• midday

• evening

• health

• mindset

Later, you can tap the tag to filter your list. Instant routine view.

Option B: Separate lists

For people who love organization:

• Morning Habits

• Workday Habits

• Evening Habits

If that feels like too much, stick with tags.

Step 7: Make the habit feel easier with subtasks or notes

Your brain loves feeling accomplished. Give it checkboxes to click.

Break big habits into subtasks

Let’s say your habit is “Move for 30 minutes.”

Inside the reminder, add subtasks like:

• Stretch (5 min)

• Walk (10 min)

• Strength (10 min)

• Cool down (5 min)

Now you can see progress even if you don’t hit the full 30 minutes. Progress > perfection.

Add notes for encouragement or tracking

Inside the reminder, jot:

• “5 minutes counts.”

• “This is for future me.”

• “Track water here: //// ////”

The goal is to reduce friction, not add more rules.

Step 8: Use the “Today” view as your habit dashboard

Tap Today in the Reminders app and everything you planned for today shows up automatically.

Think of this as your:

• Morning check-in → “What do I want to hit today?”

• Evening check-in → “What did I get done? What needs adjusting?”

No guilt. Just information.

Step 9: Let Siri make this easier

You can create and complete habits hands-free.

To create a habit:

“Hey Siri, remind me every day at 8 am to take my meds.”

To check off a habit:

“Hey Siri, I finished my ‘drink water’ reminder.”

This works great when you’re multitasking or mid-routine.

Step 10: Weekly mini-review (the part most people skip… don’t.)

Once a week, spend 5 minutes tweaking your setup.

Ask:

• “Which reminders am I consistently ignoring?”

• “Does this habit need a smaller version?”

• “Is this still a priority right now?”

• “Is the timing realistic?”

Adjusting isn’t failing — it’s designing a system that fits your real life.

Step 11: Use “Completed” to highlight your wins

Scroll down in your Habits list and tap Show Completed.

This is your proof:

• You are showing up

• You are doing more than your brain gives you credit for

• You are building skills, not perfection

Let your nervous system see the evidence.

Step 12: Start tiny. Consistency beats intensity every time.

We’re not building an aesthetic habit tracker for Pinterest.
We’re building a system that helps you stay consistent on chaotic Tuesday afternoons.

Make habits so small they’re almost impossible to fail, and expand only when you’re ready.

• 1 glass of water → then 2

• 3 minutes of movement → then 5

• 2 sentences of journaling → then a page

Tiny builds trust. Trust builds momentum. Momentum builds habits.

The Quick-Start Checklist

A little summary you can screenshot or stick in your Notes:

• Pick 3–7 habits

• Create a “Habits” list in Reminders

• Add each habit as its own reminder

• Set repeating schedules

• Add realistic notification times

• (Optional) Add tags or separate lists

• Use subtasks + notes for ease

• Check the “Today” view

• Ask Siri to help

• Do a weekly 5-minute reset