Developing a new habit can be hard work. We are trying to integrate a new skill or action into our life, but fighting our own laziness, lethargy and poor habits. So, how is a habit tracker going to help?
Habit trackers are essential to building new routines into your life for several reasons. First, they keep us accountable. Secondly, it lets us celebrate our progress and makes it feel as if our goal is achievable. Finally, it helps build confidence, motivation and focus. Using habit trackers could be the difference between success and failure. This article gives you tricks and tips to help you crush your goals.
What is a habit tracker?
Well, at its simplest, it is a method of recording how often you accomplish a particular task that you want to become a regular event in your life. Whether this be exercising, having a consistent bedtime, eating healthily or learning a new skill, habit trackers allow you see whether you are acting consistently.
Habit trackers come in many different forms. At the analogue end, there is a simple grid: one square to represent each day – and you tick in this box every time you do the habit. A notebook or bullet journal can easily be used to create a basic tracker.
At the digital end, there are a plethora of habit tracking apps, desktop programmes and online resources you can use to keep track of your progress.
However, whilst there is no right or wrong, you must ensure that the process of habit tracking is simple and instantaneous. Having a program on your work’s desktop computer might not be the best if you are trying to develop a habit of exercise – especially when you might go running at the weekends or for a wild swim at the weekends. You need some method that is portable, handy and easy to use.
How to use a habit tracker.
The principle is simple. Decide on the habits you want to develop and list them on your tracker. How many you choose is up to you and often depends on your habits.
If your habit is to meditate for 5 minutes a day, then you probably would get away with having a few more. However, if your habit is writing 5000 words a day for a book, then it might be best to focus on building this habit in isolation as it will take significantly more time to achieve in any one day.
Having between 3-7 new habits is probably fairly manageable.
Then decide on a time period and create columns for each day. A weekly tracker with 7 columns works well, as does one for a fortnight or a whole month.
Some tricks and tips for writing habits
- Make your habit achievable.
If you have a full-time job, 5 kids and run a successful catering company as a side hustle, setting a goal to go for a 2 hour jog every day may not be realistic. Setting an over-ambitious habit will only bring you a loss in confidence, as you will be failing on a regular basis. However, doing 20 push-ups may be more achievable.
- Make you habit binary
At the end of the day you need to know whether you have done your habit or not. If you have, put a tick; if not, put a cross. The habit written in vague terms can be difficult to assess. “Eat less chocolate” or “make more money” is too woolly to be of use when you are trying to build a habit. Writing in a way that is easy to determine whether you have done them is crucial to this task. “Make the bed”, “meditate for 20 minutes” or “phone dad” is binary – either you have done it, or you haven’t. There is no grey area.
- Make your habit one that moves you towards your goal
If your goal is to learn a new skill, then your habit should be one that moves you inexorably towards this. It should be a core action that is vital to developing the new skill. Wanting to write that book is a great goal, but assigning a habit of writing to 1 publisher every day is not particularly useful if you haven’t even written chapter 1.
- Make your habit one that moves you towards a new self-identity
An important aspect is to see yourself as someone who would have this habit. Your habitual actions bring you closer to this self-identity. This means that if you want to change your eating patterns, thinking “What choice would a healthy person make here?” can help navigate the pitfalls of falling off the wagon.
So the reason for you not accepting a doughnut is because you are trying to lose weight, is less powerful than not accepting because you make healthy choices. Or saying no to a cigarette is more powerful if you are not a smoker, than if you are trying to quit smoking. It’s a small distinction but one that can have a significant impact on your success.
What are the benefits of using a habit tracker?
As we mentioned in the introduction, there are several reasons why habit trackers work.
- They are objective, not subjective.
We are very good at lying to ourselves. “Nope, I’ve not touched one sweet treat this week” when, in reality, we have completely forgotten about that chocolate bar we guzzled down after that gruelling gym session. Oh, and that colossal slice of Sandra’s birthday cake on Sunday evening.
- Greater confidence
Seeing our progress gives us confidence that we are able to change poor habits for better ones. If we review our week, we can quite clearly see that we have exercised 5 days out of 7, flossed our teeth 100% of the time and practised our Catalan phrases for a total of 60 minutes. This should give us confidence that even if progress is slow, there is progress.
- Greater motivation
When I bought my tumble drier, it read the instruction manual as I’d heard that it is a common cause of household fires. The cause: a build up of fluff in the lint trap. So, I cleaned it every single time I used it. Now, 3 years on, the knowledge that I have never missed an un-fluffing is a perverse source of pride. When my monkey mind says, “Oh don’t bother this time – there’s not that much ripped-up tissue (despite checking every pocket twice, may I add!). But something inside me motivates me to get stuck in to leave the filter gleaming.
- Greater focus
It is easy to get distracted, especially in the early days when we are just starting to embed our habits into our daily routines. A million and one other jobs come up and we can lose sight of what is important. A habit tracker focuses us on the actions we have decided are important to our long-term goals. Even though we may be swayed off course by other important, urgent or crisis-solving activities, coming back to our tracker helps refocus or attention.
- It can create a visual cue that prompts you to act
Pinning your tracker on the bedroom mirror, your computer home screen or anywhere else it is sure to get noticed, is a constant reminder that we need to make time to complete these habits on a day-to-day basis.
You go for a cheeky mid-afternoon yoghurt and there it is, shining in all its glory – your tracker reminding you that you will run 30 minutes a day. Having cues to help remind us of new habits is an essential ingredient in developing that habit.
- It is satisfying to see progress
I can’t explain it – but drawing a little cross in a box is weirdly satisfying. It feels a bit like crossing off an item on your to-do list. It gives that little dopamine hit that makes it more likely that we will repeat that action.
New habits can be difficult to develop. It is likely that your old habitual thinking, coupled with an outdated routine may become an obstacle to developing the new healthier habits you are trying to take on. Tracking these habits is one excellent way to increase the chances of success in the early days.
If you want some motivation for developing new habits, check out this TED Talk by Christine Carter on the 1 minute secret to developing new habits.
Having a goal is the finish line. Developing good habits is each footstep towards getting you there. This is one element of the goal-setting toolbox you do not want to be without.
To check out our article on how habits can help you with your action planning, click here: how to use an action planner with examples.
Or if you want to read our post on crushing your goals using action planning, click the link.
If you have found this article helpful, feel free to leave a comment about how habit tracking has helped you in other ways. And in true NFS style, make sure you take at least one trick or tip from the article and apply it to your own life. This could well be one of your Next Few Steps!