What is a habit tracker?
Habit tracker is a simple way to track how often you stick with your habits. The idea is simple—just cross off each day you stick with a specific routine. Over a period of time, all of this data will serve as a useful way to measure and determine which habits you are following consistently and which ones need more practice and time.
For example: You may plan to do yoga 5 days a week, but your habit tracker shows that you only manage to do it 2 days each week. Drinking 8 glasses of water each day is a habit that may be working well as your data shows that you're quite good at maintaining that count.
What are the benefits of habit tracking?
Tracking habits has many benefits, primary being:
-
It serves as a useful reminder of the things you need to do. Without specific goals, it's easy to get distracted and hard to keep up with the things you want to accomplish in life. Habit tracker gives you the cue to act on your important goals.
-
Seeing the progress you're making keeps you motivated. When you see how far you've come, you want to keep going. A simple record of your daily achievements makes it easy to stick to your habits.
-
Ticking a box in the habit tracker signalling you've completed a habit creates excitement. Recording your success feels satisfying. It's the same dopamine rush and a sense of gratification that comes from checking an item off your to-do list.
-
Measuring how you're doing each day keeps you grounded in reality. Without proof, you're more likely to think you're doing better than you're. With evidence, you can't lie to yourself and can clearly see what's going on each day.
Does habit tracking work?
William James, an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, described human beings as “bundles of habits." He says "Developing habits simplifies the movements required to achieve a given result."
Research shows that people who track their progress on goals are more likely to improve than those who don't. Healthy habits may take some time to establish, but once they do, they make it easier for us to repeatedly make the right choices. Advice for creating habits is easy: repeat a chosen behaviour in the same context, until it becomes automatic and effortless.
For example, whether your goal is to exercise 5 days a week, lose weight, quit smoking or eat healthy food, habit tracking is a powerful way to stick to your habits, track your progress and find more ways to improve.
What should I track daily?
You can track anything you want in a habit tracker. Here are some examples of daily, weekly and monthly habits that I track. You can create a similar list for yourself and add them to your habit tracker.
Daily habits
-
Drink 8 glasses of water
-
Do yoga for 30 mins
-
Consume no sugar
-
Eat 2 fruits and 3 veggies
-
Walk 5000 steps
-
Step 8 hrs
-
Express gratitude
-
Write 500 words
Weekly habits
-
Laundry
-
House cleaning
-
Call mom
-
Buy groceries
-
Water plants
Monthly habits
-
Pay credit card
-
Pay other bills
-
Check expenses
-
House cleaning
-
Review productivity
-
Meet a friend for coffee
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.