Let’s talk about habit tracking. We’d all like to create one of those glorious year-in-pixels charts and fill it in every day but let’s face it there are too many things going on. When you’re juggling multiple planners, have too many apps on your phone and still can’t keep on top of the washing up then are you going to colour in a square?
But it doesn’t stop us trying and failing leaving a trail of partially completed grids, charts and trackers behind us.
Look at this horrible specimen from my past…
Having failed to develop the habit of logging a habit over the course of year, I dropped my expectations and tried to do it for a month at a time. Again I’d start off strong and it would all go wrong again…
The problems with habit tracking
X I was trying to track too many habits.
X They were new habits.
X They were part of a complicated morning process.
X I felt bad when I failed to do the habit.
X I felt bad again when I saw my uncompleted habit tracker.
How I’ve made habit tracking work for me
When Carla and I began to design the Ink Drops planner pages habit trackers seemed a natural thing to include. That doesn’t’t mean I wanted them in there but Carla was really persuasive. So persuasive that I get I should give them another go. I really wanted to make them work for me so I thought about everything I learned about habits after reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and Atomic Habits by James Clear as well as having seen endless social media on the subject.
My thoughts on habit planning
! Habits build on habits.
! Gamification helps,
! I need to find a way to remove the guilt of failure.
My answer to making habit planning work
In the planner, we added a habit tracker with space for a number of habits and a circle to tick or colour in for each day of the week. There’s also a monthly one that I might now be able to start using.
For habits, I included ones already in place (like brushing my teeth) as this helped me to link other habits (like taking my vitamins after I’ve finished with my toothbrush). Knowing that I’d definitely be able to tick some things off made me feel good.
At the end of the week, I always discard the sheet. Every week is a fresh start and that removes the guilt and improves my motivation.
Before the sheet went in the recycling bin though I count up the number of circles completed. My best-ever score is written across the top of the sheet and equaling or beating that is my challenge.
Bonus habit planning features
I’d also identified the time of day I would expect most of the habit-forming activities to happen and wrote them down in the order I expected to do them. I figured if I got sidetracked I’d be able to see quickly where I was on the list.
As it turned out I was nicely able to separate the tasks and habits into two lists. One for the morning and one for later in the day.
With the evening list, I often found I ran out of time so I identified 3 habit tasks I definitely wanted to do and ensure that they are done even if nothing else is. As with my morning tracker, every week is a fresh start to prevent guilt and I’m motivated by beating my highest score.
What’s your take on habit trackers? A useful tool or the work of the devil?