Track your habits

After reading Atomic Habits by James Clear, we at first decided not to follow his advice on having a physical habit tracker for all of our developing habits. And surely enough after a few months have passed, we forgot about it entirely. Then we saw it again on James Clear's blog and decided to finally give it a go. It has proven to be an excellent tool to sticking to our habits and is also very pleasant.

How to track your habits?

Just use a simple table in Word or just make it by hand. All you need are columns with the days in them and rows with your habits. We also find it helpful to keep a pen together with the tracker, to make it even easier to tick things off. Once you do the habit, just put a symbol into the checkbox. It can be a dot, x, +, a check-mark... Anything that best suits you and makes you feel good while checking it off. We added our example table below. Currently we're tracking studying (Forest), writing our blog (Salix) and removing 1 item from our home.

Notice how we track just 3 habits, which brings us to our next point.

Track a smaller number of habits

Starting new habits is a challenge. That's why you don't want to overload yourself. It's tempting to start it all at once: the exercise we've been neglecting, the junk food we've been eating, the procrastinating from studying, the lack of calling our friends and family, the learning of a new instrument... We tend to put so much on our shoulders and while it feels great at first, we burn out in a couple of weeks. That's why starting small is so important. We're trying to build something for life, so why not do it in a pleasant and easy way that let's us stick to it for years to come.

So a rule of thumb is to track a maximum of 3-4 habits, or if even that seems overwhelming to track just 1. Habit change is a lifetime process so start it right.

Habit tracking is a reward in itself

After a while you will see a lot of check marks on your habit tracker. Maybe even a couple of streaks. And that becomes a reward in itself. By making habits easy and choosing them wisely, it will be easier to complete them day after day. And seeing that on your tracker will give you confidence and show that you actually are the person you’re trying to be.

Track only the simplest of habits

Keeping the habits simple and short makes completing them easier. Which means, you’re more likely do to them frequently, which makes the tracker more full and rewarding. At the same time it means that the habits and tracking of the habits become a part of your everyday life and a part of who you are. In that way small, simple habits can develop into a part of your character. Over time the habits grow by themselves like a plant that you have nurtured since the seed until they are firmly rooted in your life.

Keeping track of your habits ensures that they stay on your mind and a part of your life until they eventually become a part of who you are. All it takes is a piece of paper and a pen.

So, which habits will you try to keep track of? Let us know, we’d love to hear from you!