By Leo Babauta

I’m creating a habit app, and I need your help.

It’s just a web app for now, and it’s already in its beta testing phase. It’s called Habit Zen, and (eventually) it will be the first app to really help people overcome resistance and stick to habits.

But although I’ve put about $20,000 of my own money into this project (with two developers and a designer), I have run out of money.

So I’m asking you to help me build this … by funding my Habit Zen project on Kickstarter.

I’m excited about this Kickstarter campaign, because 1) you’ll be able to become a part of this project that means a lot to me, and 2) I’m offering some exclusive rewards if you help fund this project (I’ll get to those in a minute).

So what is this habit app, and why should you care?

Right now, it’s a web app, and a simple habit tracker. Nothing to get excited about … except that it will become better and better as people use it. That’s because I’m going to run big habit experiments to figure out what helps people stick to habits. What habits are better to start with? How long should you do them? Is it better to have an accountability partner, or a group? Rewards or consequences? I’m going to use this app to test these questions and many more.

So we’re going to learn, together! It’s going to be like a crowd-sourced habit learning project, and I’ll share the info publicly on this blog. And use it to make the app better at helping you get good at creating habits.

It’ll also (eventually) help people create personal habit formulas that will adjust over time to help them create a habit plan and stick to it.

It’s going to be a web app for now, but I hope to create a phone app next year. In the meantime, if you help fund the project, you can become a beta tester and help me learn and make this project really great. I hope you join me!

Check out the Habit Zen project here, and fund me!

Kickstarter Rewards

I’ve created some rewards that I think are really great … and I can’t wait for you to check them out:

To encourage you to help me build this … I’m creating some rewards that will be exclusive to this Kickstarter campaign (depending on what level you fund):

• Habit Ebook: As we speak, I’m busy writing a short ebook on habits for beginners. It’ll cover all the basics, common obstacles, best techniques, and some tricks I’ve learned in my own experiments. This will come with a few videos as a bonus. I hope to be done with this by December.

• Habit Webinar: I’ll hold a live video webinar online, talking about the basics of forming habits … and you’ll be able to ask questions that I’ll answer live.

• Beta tester (early adopter): You’ll get early beta access to the web app and help us with the habit experiments! It’s already working at its most basic level, and your feedback will help us improve it as we add features.

• Habit Webinar Series: Similar to the above webinar, I’ll hold a series of three webinars that will help you go from habit beginner to beyond, including talking about common obstacles, and some advanced skills that I’ve been learning.

• Lifetime pro access: Once we launch the premium edition (next year), people who fund at this level (and above) will have lifetime access to all the premium features without having to pay each month. For life.

• Habit Mastery Course: This is going to be a $300 course that I’m hoping to offer online early next year (either January or February). It will be 3 months long, with video lessons (about 1-2 per week) and assignments/challenges. It is designed to take you to the advanced habit level, if you do the work.

• Mindfulness seminar in San Francisco: I’ll be holding a one-day seminar on mindfulness, in person, in San Francisco next spring. The date hasn’t been set yet, so don’t choose this if traveling to SF will be a problem. We’ll work on dealing mindfully with fears, obstacles, uncertainty and more. You pay for your airfare.

• Spend a weekend with Leo: Want to spend time with me 1-on-1? Come to San Francisco and we’ll hang out, talk about your personal development (if you like), meditate, eat my favorite vegan food, drink tea, hike around to my favorite spots. We’ll even stay together in an Airbnb apartment (separate beds) if you like, with the Airbnb included in the cost of this funding level. You pay for your airfare though.

• Leo comes to your city: I’ll fly to your city, anywhere in the world, to hang out with you! I’ll even give a talk at an event or at your company, whatever you like, if you want. We could work on a personal development plan for you. Or just hang and have fun. Airfare is included up to $2,500 (USD) -- you pay for anything above that if airfare is more expensive than $2,500.

Of course, which of these you get depends on which funding level you choose. :)

Help me build this by backing the project here.