In case you’re not familiar with it, 3 Good Things is an app in which you log 3 positive experiences or observations from your day. I view it as a lightweight method of journaling and have used it for the past 2 months. My friend mentioned she’s consistently used it for a while so I thought I’d give it a shot and share my experience with it.
There’s something about physically writing or typing out the highlights from the day that engrains them in your brain and creates a positive feedback mechanism. I set a daily notification to 9 pm so this is when I type these out if I forget to during the middle of the day. Initially, it was challenging to reflect on the day and come up with the 3 things but after a couple of weeks, I decided not to overthink it and just write whatever popped into my brain.
From an app design perspective, this is not the prettiest or most visually aesthetic app but I think that simplicity is part of what makes it so effective. To me this is an app that truly uses technology for good — it’s not designed in a way to entice the user to endlessly scroll, has an intuitive set of screens, and doesn’t display any distracting ads.
There is also a concept of streaks in the app, which accumulate for each day that you enter the 3 good things. I’ll admit I have missed a few days here and there and backfilled the good things (which you get bonus ‘points’ for!). The best part however is the consistency — over time it becomes a habit to take 1 minute each day to type out the highlights. I’ve noticed that using this app for the past 2 months has made me so much more appreciative and grateful for the little things in day-to-day life.
It’s interesting to observe emerging patterns. For now, I can tell that food, friends, and daily activities dominate my 3-good-thing logs. I’m curious to see how these things change over time.
Thanks for reading, and let me know if you ever give this app a try.
