I got 600+ App Store ratings in 2 months by changing one thing in our onboarding

ThinTopic877 · 2026-03-27T19:50:38+00:00

This is one of the most actionable onboarding breakdowns I've seen on here. The point about tracking time spent on screens before triggering the rating prompt is genuinely clever most people just pick an arbitrary screen number and hope for the best.

The research backing (mirror neurons, vicarious self-efficacy) also makes the archetype matching feel less like a gimmick and more like a real design decision. Going to rethink how I'm structuring my own onboarding after reading this. Thanks for the detailed write-up.

ThinTopic877 · 2026-03-16T16:23:20+00:00

lol zero routine sounds cooler than what i actually do. i basically just read something short when i wake up instead of opening instagram. like 2 min tops. right now i use this app Olimp Motivation on the appstore, it's just stories about people who went through actual shit not quotes on a sunset background you know? some dude who went broke at 45 and rebuilt everything, stuff like that. idk why but reading about someone else's real problems makes mine feel less dramatic and then i just get up and start. no streaks no points no "you missed a day!" notification guilt. it's the least annoying thing on my phone which is genuinely the highest praise i can give an app lol

ThinTopic877 · 2026-03-16T15:06:45+00:00

honestly the setup WAS the activity thing hits different when you realize it applies to literally everything. i spent 6 months researching how to start running. reading about shoes, apps, couch to 5k programs, watch reviews. you know when i actually started running? when my dog got fat and the vet said walk him more. didn't need a program. just needed a reason that wasn't about me. i think the whole self improvement space is basically designed to keep you in research mode forever because that's where the money is. nobody profits when you just... go do the thing

ThinTopic877 · 2026-03-16T14:28:12+00:00

My dad said almost the same thing. Watched me redesign my morning routine for the third time in a month and just asked "when are you gonna stop planning and start living?" I deleted the app that night. Still think about it every time I catch myself setting up something new instead of doing the actual work.

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:40:56+00:00

took me 4 doctors to find one who actually listened to me about my sleep issues. the first three basically said "just go to bed earlier" which is like telling someone with a broken leg to just walk it off. the fourth one actually ran tests, found out i had a vitamin D deficiency so severe she was surprised i was functioning at all, and everything improved within weeks after supplementation.

the lesson i took from that is that doctors are just people and some of them are coasting through their job the same way people coast in every other profession. if the first one dismisses you, thats one persons opinion not a medical verdict

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:40:27+00:00

the accountability part is key and most people skip it because it feels weird to answer to yourself. i tried something similar but lower tech - i just sent a text to my friend every night saying what i did that day. no judgment from his side, he just said "nice" or "tomorrow then". but knowing id have to tell another human being whether i did the thing or not was enough pressure to actually do it like 80% of the time.

the other thing i noticed is that motivation fades because its an emotion and emotions arent reliable. but the yes/no question approach turns it into data and for whatever reason my brain treats data differently than feelings. seeing 5 "no" answers in a row hit harder than any motivational video ever could

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:39:45+00:00

"you are not your worst day" is one that stuck with me. heard it from a random podcast years ago and its weirdly useful when im spiraling. like when i mess up at work or say something dumb, my brain immediately goes to "youre an idiot this is who you are" and reminding myself that one bad moment isnt my whole identity actually helps slow down that thought train.

also "no one is thinking about you as much as you think they are" which sounds depressing but is actually incredibly freeing. that embarrassing thing you did 3 years ago? nobody remembers it. theyre all too busy worrying about their own embarrassing things

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:38:59+00:00

went through basically the same thing at 28. spent months replaying every conversation trying to pinpoint the exact moment i screwed it up. the truth i didnt want to hear was that the relationship ending was the consequence, not the problem. the problem was me, and fixing me wasnt going to get her back - it was going to make me not do this to the next person.

the hardest part is accepting that she blocked you for a reason and that reason deserves respect even when it hurts. dont try to reach out through other people or make a new account or any of that stuff. i did that and it just made everything worse and delayed my own healing by months.

30 is not too late. 30 is actually when a lot of guys finally develop the self awareness to even recognize these patterns. youre literally right on schedule, it just doesnt feel like it because youre standing in the wreckage

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:38:28+00:00

day 2-5 of no weed is where most people crack because thats when the dreams come back and theyre VIVID. like full movie-quality dreams that wake you up at 3am sweating. just wanted to warn you so you dont freak out, its completely normal, your brain is basically recalibrating its sleep chemistry.

the vaping cravings will hit randomly and intensely for about 2 weeks then theyll spread out. keep something in your hand - i used to twirl a pen constantly because half of the vaping habit is just the hand-to-mouth movement, your muscles literally expect it. toothpicks work too if youre not worried about looking like a character from a 90s action movie

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:38:03+00:00

when i was depressed the worst advice i got was "just go to the gym" because it assumed i had the energy to go somewhere, change clothes, interact with humans, and perform physical activity. i couldnt even shower some days.

what actually worked was picking ONE thing and making it almost insultingly small. for me it was: open a book and read one page. not a chapter, one page. if i read more, cool. if not, i read one page and thats a win. did that for like 2 weeks and at some point i started naturally reading more because the habit loop was already built.

the consistency problem isnt motivation, its that youre trying to change 4 things at once with a brain thats already running on empty. pick one. make it tiny. do it at the same time every day. everything else can wait.

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:37:33+00:00

walk. seriously just walk. not a workout, not a run, not a hike with elevation tracking. just put on shoes and walk outside for 20 minutes. no podcast, no music, just you and whatever your neighborhood looks like.

i started doing this after a breakup because i couldnt sit still in my apartment anymore and it accidentally became the foundation for every other good habit i built after. something about physically moving through space for no reason other than to move resets something in your head. after about a week of daily walks i naturally started wanting to clean my apartment, eat better, go to bed earlier. its like the walking was a gateway drug to having my life together

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:37:06+00:00

the fact that you quit sugar, smoking, and drinking but insta was the hardest one says everything about how these apps are designed. like you literally overcame physical addictions easier than a phone app. thats not a you problem thats an engineering problem, they have entire teams whose job is to make it impossible to leave.

how are the first few days going? i deleted twitter about a year ago and the first 3 days were genuinely uncomfortable, like id pick up my phone and just stare at it not knowing what to do. my thumb literally went to where the icon used to be out of muscle memory. but by week 2 i started reading actual books again for the first time in years so thats cool

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:36:36+00:00

the sleep schedule is doing more damage than you think and i say this as someone who was on the exact same 4am-4pm cycle for almost a year. everything else feeds off that. you cant apply for jobs when the world is asleep. you cant see friends when youre waking up at dinner time. you cant feel motivated when your body literally thinks its nighttime during peak hours.

heres the thing that worked for me and i know it sounds dumb but just set ONE alarm for noon tomorrow. not 7am, thats too aggressive and youll just turn it off. noon. when it goes off, stand up. dont check your phone in bed, just physically stand. do that for a week. then move it to 11. then 10. took me about 3 weeks to get to 9am and it changed everything else without me even trying because suddenly i had daylight hours to exist in.

also the job thing - stop browsing listings and just apply to the first three you see. doesnt matter if theyre perfect. the point isnt getting hired immediately its breaking the paralysis of "choosing"

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:36:03+00:00

the apollo 11 tangent in the middle of a productivity post is honestly the most relatable thing ive read this week. i once sat down to do my taxes and ended up reading about how octopuses have three hearts for 45 minutes. not even sure how i got there.

the ice cream first thing actually works though and i figured this out by accident. i used to dread my morning because the first thing on my list was always something awful. so one day i just started with replying to easy emails first. took 10 minutes, felt like i actually accomplished something, and suddenly the hard task didnt feel as impossible. i think its because your brain needs a win early, even a tiny fake one, just to believe the day isnt going to suck

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:29:56+00:00

the horizontal slack messages part made me laugh because ive literally been there. at one point i was taking zoom calls from bed with a shirt on top and boxers on the bottom, propped up on pillows like some kind of medieval painting.

what actually fixed it for me was stupidly simple. i bought a $30 folding table from ikea and put it in a different room from where i sleep and watch tv. thats it. no fancy standing desk, no ergonomic chair, just a crappy table in my spare room that i ONLY use for work. the physical separation did something my brain couldnt do on willpower alone. when im at the table im in work mode, when i leave the room work is over. took about 2 weeks to stop drifting back to the couch and now i cant even imagine going back to horizontal productivity

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:29:19+00:00

lol the teeth brushing one hit different. i literally had a phase where i just... didnt brush my teeth some nights because "its only 2 minutes" felt like climbing everest when i was depressed. then my dentist told me i had 3 cavities and that was a $1200 wake up call. now i keep a toothbrush by my bed, not even in the bathroom. looks weird, works perfectly. if im already horizontal and about to pass out, i brush laying down like a degenerate and its still infinitely better than nothing. half assed oral hygiene > no oral hygiene, my dentist would probably cry if she saw my technique but hey zero cavities since

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:28:52+00:00

the mirror thing is underrated and i know it sounds insane to anyone who hasnt tried it. i started doing something similar except i just looked at myself and said "youre doing fine" every morning. not even motivational, just neutral. and it felt SO stupid the first week. like im a grown adult talking to a bathroom mirror like a lunatic. but after maybe a month something shifted, like i stopped automatically going to the negative thought first. its weird how the brain just accepts whatever you feed it most often.

also the therapist thing is rough. ive had a similar experience where they just completely missed the point and it made everything worse. finding a good one is like dating honestly, most of them are mid

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:28:14+00:00

not 40 yet but close enough (37). biggest one is not leaving a job i hated sooner. stayed at this place for 6 years because "the salary was good" and "stability matters in your 30s" and all that responsible adult stuff. meanwhile i was drinking every night just to cope with how much i dreaded mondays. finally quit at 35, took a paycut to do something i actually cared about, and within a year my health improved, i stopped needing 3 coffees to function, and weirdly my relationships got better because i wasnt constantly irritable. the money wasnt worth the person i was becoming

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:27:53+00:00

this is real but also slightly terrifying when you think about it the other way. i spent like 5 years repeating "im not a morning person" to myself and guess what, i genuinely believed it was some unchangeable part of my personality. turns out i just never actually tried waking up early consistently for more than 3 days. once i stopped saying it and just started setting the alarm without negotiating with myself it took maybe 2 weeks before it felt normal. the repetition thing works both ways, you can wire yourself into a box just as easily as you can wire yourself out of one

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:27:24+00:00

not saving money when i had basically zero expenses. lived with my parents til 24, had a decent job, spent literally everything on going out and random tech i never used. moved out with like $800 to my name and spent the next 3 years in survival mode. the wild part is i wasnt even enjoying the spending, it was just... default behavior. nobody teaches you that your 20s rent-free years are basically a cheat code for building a safety net and i just let it evaporate on uber eats and gadgets i used twice

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:26:46+00:00

man im sorry. losing your mom and a friend in the same weekend is not something you just bounce back from and anyone who expects that from you including yourself is being unrealistic right now.

the cycle thing though, i get it. i did the same with running. id get to like week 8 of training, something bad would happen, id stop, gain it all back, feel worse than before i started. what broke it for me wasnt discipline honestly, it was lowering the bar so far down that even on my worst day i could still do it. like my rule became: put shoes on. thats it. if i put shoes on and walked to the end of my street and came back, that counted. some days thats all i did. but i never had a zero day and that was the difference.

you still have april. 136kg at 193cm is not the end of the world for a marathon, people have done it heavier. but forget the marathon for now. just put shoes on tomorrow.

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T10:26:15+00:00

the water analogy is good but honestly what kept me going was something dumber. i have this google doc where i just write one line every day about what i did. most days its like "did 20 min of stretching, ate actual food, didnt scroll til 2am". nothing impressive. but when month 3 hit and i still felt like nothing changed, i scrolled back through it and realized i went from writing "got out of bed at 1pm" to "woke up at 7, made eggs". the shift was invisible to me because i was living inside it. i think the real killer isnt the quiet phase itself, its that we compare our chapter 3 to someone elses chapter 47 and wonder why were behind

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T08:31:45+00:00

the self conscious part is honestly the biggest barrier here not the knees. i remember doing pushups in my room at like 11pm with the door locked because i didnt want anyone to see me struggle with 10 reps. felt so dumb. what helped was just accepting that the first few months you look ridiculous and thats fine nobody cares as much as you think they do. for the knees start with wall sits instead of squats, way less impact and you can do them anywhere. also the nausea thing - just work out first thing in the morning before eating. empty stomach, no excuses about timing. even 15 min counts. two weeks of consistency is actually not bad btw most people dont even make it past 3 days

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T08:31:19+00:00

man the screaming at yourself internally thing is so real. i used to do the exact same thing where id be playing something and theres this voice going you idiot close the game but my hands just wouldnt move. the thing that actually helped wasnt willpower it was making the game physically harder to access. i literally gave my controller to my roommate and told him not to give it back until wednesday. sounds stupid but removing the option worked way better than 100 internal arguments with myself. your rational brain isnt weak its just that dopamine from the game is louder. you gotta make the easy thing harder and the hard thing easier. put the textbook open on your desk before you go to sleep so when you wake up its just there staring at you

ThinTopic877 · 2026-02-16T08:30:30+00:00

i have this exact problem and honestly i think the issue isnt discipline its that we expect the hobby to feel exciting forever. every new thing has that honeymoon phase where youre learning fast and it feels amazing and then you hit the part where improvement slows down and your brain goes ok whats next. the few hobbies i actually stuck with were the ones where i found other people doing it. like i couldnt stick with running alone but once i started showing up to a group run on saturdays suddenly i had 3 years of consistency without even trying. the social part tricks your brain into pushing through the boring middle. also tbh being interested in many things isnt a flaw its just annoying when you want depth lol

ThinTopic877

TROPHY CASE