The Honest Truth About Daylio
Daylio is genuinely good at what it does. The micro-diary concept - tap your mood, select activities, add an optional note - is brilliantly simple. Over time, you get insights about what activities correlate with better moods.
But here's the limitation: Daylio tracks your past, not plans your future.
Knowing that "exercise correlates with good moods" is useful insight. But Daylio doesn't help you actually schedule exercise. It observes and reports; it doesn't plan and motivate.
What Daylio Does Better
Daylio has genuine strengths:
- Mood tracking: Quick, visual daily mood logging
- Correlations: See which activities affect your mood
- Journaling: Low-friction daily notes
- Year in pixels: Beautiful mood visualization
- Simplicity: Takes seconds to log each day
If you want to understand your emotional patterns and what influences them, Daylio provides excellent data.
The Tracking vs Action Distinction
Here's the fundamental difference:
Daylio asks: "How did you feel today? What did you do?"
Funtasking asks: "What should you do today to live a balanced life?"
One looks backward (tracking). One looks forward (planning). Both have value, but they serve different purposes.
Where Funtasking Takes a Different Path
The Purpose Wheel: Instead of mood icons, you see 8 life areas - Body, Mind, Connection, Work, Learning, Impact, Play, Space. You plan tasks across these areas to build a balanced day, not just observe how the day made you feel.
Future-Focused Planning: Daylio captures what happened. Funtasking helps you decide what should happen. Schedule tasks, block time, see your day laid out.
Custom Rewards: Daylio tracks achievements and streaks. Funtasking lets you earn coins and spend them on rewards you define - real treats, not just badges.
Can You Use Both?
Actually, they complement each other well:
- Morning: Use Funtasking to plan your balanced day
- Evening: Use Daylio to reflect on how you felt
But if you only want one app, the question is: do you need to understand your feelings, or do you need to change your actions?
Who Should Choose Daylio?
- You want to understand your emotional patterns
- Mood tracking is your primary goal
- You love data and correlations about yourself
- You want a journaling-lite experience
- You prefer tracking over planning
- The "Year in Pixels" visualization appeals to you
Who Should Choose Funtasking?
- You need to plan your days, not just track them
- You want to balance all 8 areas of life
- You like gamification with custom rewards
- You need calendar integration
- Action and planning matter more than reflection
- Burnout prevention is your goal
The Pricing Comparison
Daylio: Free with ads, Premium $35.99/year or $4.99/month
Funtasking: Free with full features, Pro $2.99/month
Both are affordable. Funtasking's free tier is more generous.