Top 3 Reasons Why You Should Use A Habit Tracker
What Are Habits?
In this post, you will learn the top 3 reasons why you should consider using habit trackers, what they are and how to use them. I’ll also share a free habit tracker that you can get linked Here. You hear all the time about the top habits to follow and maybe you’ve tried to do them. This video is not about which habits to follow, we get enough of that already, instead this is about how to track those habits that will get you to your goals or to just the life you want to live and be the person that you want to become.
If you prefer to listen or watch, this blog post has been made into a full YouTube Video.
What is a Habit Tracker?
It is a tool, usually paper or digitized, which you can use to track your habits daily. Usually they look something like this. It has a list of habits that you want to incorporate into your life, along with a space for basically checking the box, so a yes / no format. Did you or did you not complete the habit for that day. You can have a habit tracker in the form of a journal, bijou, paper planner, or Digital planner whether it be weekly, monthly, or daily. In all cases, the formatting will be similar, the habit listed on one axis and the days on another. You check it off as completed. Hence tracking your habits.
Top Reason #1
Whether it’s working out or doing yoga, saving money or meditating, I’m sure we’ve all tried a new habit, at first being excited and motivated about the idea. Think of the mindset you have with a New Years Resolution. It’s exciting at first, then as time goes on, you begin skipping days, losing motivation, straight up forgetting or other things that conveniently come up. There’s a statistic that only 80% of people with a New Year’s resolution fail to keep up with it by March of that year. That’s where a habit tracker comes in. The first reason why you might want to use a habit tracker is that it allows you to visually use it as a checklist before you’ve had a chance to forget about it. If you have it in let’s say your planner, and you see it at the beginning of every day, then you can use it as a reminder to get that habit completed. This may come in handy, if you are by chance an “out of sight, out of mind” person like myself. This can help you visualize what you need to do and go get it done. I also like to list out my habits in the order that I would like to complete them every day. For instance, I prefer to do Yoga first thing in the morning, followed by a journaling exercise, then a quick meditation session. You’ll find some habits are immediately actionable such as the ones listed above, then others can instead be an all day conscious effort or decision, here is an example. Drinking 8 cups of water a day. I cannot at the beginning of the day mark off 8 cups of water, but I can pour myself a large glass and expect to have finished it within my first waking hour. My habit tracker would serve as a reminder and of course you can get super modular with your trackers to show how many cups you drank. I have worked out a system, which might seem silly, but this is how I complete this task. Every morning right after yoga, I drink a full glass, that’s about 16 oz of water, then another glass before lunch, and another after. Between that bare minimum and drinking water with my food, I can easily get in the 8 cups that I am aiming for daily. Now, this might not be something that you want to do, we all have different medical needs, and this is my preference. Sharing with you how I do this in case it helps you with how you are looking to manage your habits. Another reminder that is nice to see at the beginning of the day is my aspiration of having Zero Spend days. Basically, I try to have days where I do not spend any money, and if I start to see a pattern here that is not in line with my money goals or values of financial independence, then it forces me to question how serious I am about following this habit.
Top Reason #2
The second reason why habit trackers can be a great tool to use is that they can also give you that positive reinforcement or internal motivation to keep going. Once you start checking off tasks day by day, you see how far you’ve come and you’ll know that you can keep going, because you’ve already proven to yourself that you can. I find it easier to keep a good streak going, as I would rather not break it, since I don’t want to lose my progress.
Have you ever worked out for the first time in a while, and you were sore, or pulled something and your back and neck were stiff? Yeah, ask me now I know. That pout me out for a few days. I would much rather continue to work out and keep working on better form, because I likely did something wrong there. I would rather continue to work towards progress instead of literally painfully starting over. Once you mark it off and you see the days in succession, it gives you a bit of motivation, at least it does for myself when I see that I worked out for 5 days in a row, which is a great feeling.
Top Reason #3
The third reason why you should consider using habit trackers is that they give you a chance to reflect. You can ask yourself, “Why didn’t I do this?” No time? Schedule it. Make time, and remove something else in your day if this is something you truly value. Basically this will force you to prioritize your time, which is hugely important in my methods of planning.
You will have to ask yourself if it is important enough to make time for it, and really be honest with yourself and decide if it really is something you value. If you keep not doing the habit or making that daily decision, maybe remind yourself WHY you are doing it in the first place. For example, I have my vision board, which I look at every morning, and that is listed in my HT, otherwise I might and do forget to look at it.
Again, I’m one of those “out of sight, out of mind people”
To combat this, I made a system so that when I am looking at my Habit Tracker, I can zip on over to my vision board because they are both in my digital planner. But I need that reminder. That vision board has a lot of my big Whys. To name a few they are my family, my partner, financial freedom, health and self care to name a few, essentially my values. If a habit is not in alignment with my values, then it gets the axe.
There have been ebbs and flows where I’d go a whole week without my habit tracker, and I would have to determine the root cause of this. I could have just forgotten about it all together, frequently overslept and did not have time before work and just let the day take the reigns instead of myself. So I had to reflect and decide if these habits were worth waking up earlier for. The answer is yes. I feel so much better when I have had a moment to do yoga, to look at my vision board, I can really show up as my best self when I do these things.
To Summarize
In the end, the habit tracker keeps me accountable and it can help you do that too.
Habit trackers are a simple tool, and the hardest part is just doing it every day.
To summarize, habit trackers serve as a visual checklist, have positive reinforcement and accountability as well as a helpful tool for reflection so you can determine if the habits you are aiming for are really in alignment with your values.
The last bit of advice I want to leave you with is to give yourself grace and start slow. Seriously, I will likely do a video on this topic itself because it is nuanced, and that important. Please allow yourself some breathing room, and don’t beat yourself up if you faltered, just find out how to help yourself succeed. Lay out workout clothes beforehand. Make a zero spend rule where regular bills are ok, but any frivolous spending would be what goes there. It’s ok to live and be human. You will make mistakes, I mean I have and will, but the beauty is that we learn from them. We learn who we are, and how we can do better.
One way to do better is to enlist the use of a habit tracker. Now that you know what it is and how to use it, you too can improve consistency with your habits and live the life you want.
I would like to add that there are other habit trackers that are specifically made like some apps that I’ve heard of and have really great reviews. My thinking is that if I put it in a Format that I am already using, such as my digital planner, then it’s one less thing to have to remember because it’s an all in one place. If you are an avid paper planner, feel free to add it there or if you journal or anything like that. It will basically be a convenient because the habits themselves will be quite a transition for you, you will want something a little familiar. If you are considering digital planning to maybe save money time because you can copy and paste events, or if you like the idea of having a mobile planner that you don’t need to carry something extra around, then check out my post on digital versus paper planning if you’re curious about what the differences are and to see if that will help you ease into that transition
Don’t forget to get your habit tracker here. Tell me in the comments, what habits are you focused on? Have you tried a habit tracker before, and if so, did it or did it not work for you? I hope this helps you have better success with it and until next time.