Ever wish your life looked different?
Do you wish you had more time for yourself? More time to spend with family? More time traveling?
These aspirations are not far-fetched. You just need a system in place to make sure you carve out the time to do the activities you dream of doing.
Believe it or not, these goals can be achieved by habit tracking.
If You choose the right habits to track you could completely alter your life into something you love.
When people think of habit tracking they typically think of tracking things like workout time, fruit and veggie intake, or sleep duration.
But in reality, you are free to track a habit that gets you closer to the life you want.
It is way easier than people make it out to be.
To help you I am going to break down the elements of an effective habit strategy, how to track your habits, and what habits to track.
Why Should You Habit Track
Before I jump into how to start habit tracking I want to quickly run through why you should habit track.
Habit tracking increases your chances of creating a long-term habit.
When you first start a habit you feel super motivated and that feeling propels you to continue the habit. Until eventually it is so ingrained in your life that you do it automatically.
Some of the benefits of habit tracking include:
- Instant Gratification – You will feel accomplished after completing your habit and marking it off in your habit tracker
- Repetition – Repetition increases the rate of habit formation because it will naturally become a part of your routine. The more you do it the less likely you are to forget about it.
- Achievability – Tracking can help you identify patterns, like if you have missed a habit for a few days maybe it is too hard for you. This allows you to make adjustments to the new habit so it is more achievable for you.
As you can see, habit tracking has many benefits and it simplifies the process of creating a long term habit.
Effective Habit Strategy
Numerous people fail at creating good habits because they do not have the proper systems in place.
You need a strategy if you plan on creating a successful habit tracker.
The strategy I will be sharing with you today is inspired by James Clear, author of Atomic Habits and Habit Expert.
To create a habit it needs to be:
- Obvious – It needs to be something you can be easily reminded to do. You can do this by creating an object cue. For example, if you want to read more then put your book on your bed so you don’t forget.
- Easy – It needs to be a task that does not sound daunting or exhausting to do on a regular basis. Start off with a small goal, like read one page of a book a day. You are more likely to start a habit if it sounds easy.
- Attractive – It needs to be something you want to do, in other words, there has to be some type of reward after the habit is completed. This can be achieved by temptation bundling, pairing a habit you have to do with something you want to do. To motivate you to read that one page you could tell yourself you can watch thirty minutes of television afterwards.
If your new habit reflects all three of these characteristics then you are well on your way to creating a long-term habit.
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Where to Track Your Habits
Now you need a place to track all of these new habits you are pursuing.
There are many different habit trackers but it is important to remember that you need to choose the one that works for you.
Don’t just choose one because it’s popular, choose a method that’s gonna stick.
To help you decide what type of habit tracker to create I am going to give you a few options. You could use a…
- Habit Tracking App
- A Spreadsheet
- A Bullet Journal
- Personal Calendar
- Printed Template
All of these options are perfectly suitable habit tracking mediums.
Also, feel free to create your own method. There is no need to choose the ones below if you already have a system that works well.
Habit Tracker Ideas
Now it’s time to get into a few habits that you could start tracking.
Remember what I said earlier about choosing habits to create a better life for yourself?
Well, I’m going to make that super simple for you.
I am going to categorize these different habits to correspond to an area of your life you want to improve.
Personal Growth
Read a book
Listen to a stimulating podcast
Journal
Meditation
Self Reflection
Practice Self Care
Saying Affirmations
Learn a new skill
Finances
Stay on budget
No impulse purchases
Save money
Pay off credit card
Gradually pay off debt (little by little)
Gradually grow an emergency fund
Significant Other
Have a date night
Say “I love you”
Do Something new together
Take a walk together
Have a deep conversation
Say something you love about them
Appeal to partners love language
Health
Take medication
Take vitamins
Eat X amount of fruits and veggies
Drink X amount of water
Exercise
Stretch in the morning
Get 8 hours of sleep
Deep breathing exercises
Family and Friends
Call family/friends
Meet up with family/friends
Actively Listen to family/friends
Tell your family/friends you appreciate them
How To Bounce Back
We are human.
We can’t predict the future, so we never know what is going to pop up and throw us off our game.
So sometimes we might fall behind on our habits.
It’s ok to miss a day, just try to get back on it as soon as possible.
You do not want to get used to skipping a habit you have been working on trying to create.
This healthy habit is an investment in yourself and you don’t want to lose it by falling off the wagon once.
Try your best to make that one last time.
Remember all the work you have put into that habit to motivate yourself to continue your habit.
Conclusion
Habit tracking takes practice but once you get the hang of it it can change your life.
It is all about the habits you decide to track.
So choose the habits you think will positively impact your life.
But anyways, let me get off my soapbox so you can continue your day.
As always, I love hearing your voices so comment down below what habit you track or want to start tracking.
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