How to Track Your Habits

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about how to get & stay motivated. In a nutshell, research has shown that motivation is not a feeling, but rather the result of progress. The more steps, no matter how small, you take towards a goal, the more likely you are to complete it.

However, we can start losing that motivation when the progress we are making doesn’t have tangible results or becomes normalized. For instance, one of my goals this year is to drink more water. One months in, I saw great results like clearer skin and feeling better overall. Yet, three months in, those benefits have become normalized and…I’m left with no tangible results again. So, how do we maintain motivation and accomplish our goals?

Track our habits! Just like we’re 42% more likely to succeed at our goals if we write them down, we are significantly more likely to make progress when we can visualize how we are doing.

This is why, after almost 3 years of coaching, the habit I would absolutely recommend to each client is this: start tracking your habits. Almost every time a client begins writing down what she’s doing, we begin seeing tremendous results.

The good news is there are so many tools and techniques to do this! Like always, figure out what method works best for you! Here’s a few options to tracking your habits.

Keep Track of Your Habits in a Bullet Journal:

Grab your favorite pens, a straight edge, a journal, and you are ready to begin! The most wonderful part about Bullet Journaling for me is that it is totally customizable and you can use it HOWEVER you see fit! So regardless if you want to track yearly goals or weekly habits, you can make it work for you. This is perfect for those of us who are never fully satisfied with the planner options out there.

How I Use It: Each morning, after I take my vitamins & start the coffee pot, I grab this Dotted Grid Journal to start my day! For me, it holds everything. At the front, I leave a few blank pages for a table of contents, a few pages for my list of yearly goals, and for yearly habits I’m tracking. Then, I use the rest of the pages to jot down my planner, daily to-do lists, ideas that inspire me, my weekly gratitude lists. I love this approach because all the things I’m trying to keep track of are in one place. The Table of Contents helps me know where thoughts & lists are! Now I simply grab my journal, daily check lists, and computer and I’m ready to hit the road (and by road, I definitely mean my favorite local coffee shop.)

Learn more about how to Bullet Journal here. *Note: There are some absolutely gorgeous hand drawn bullet journals out there. If that’s your thing or you’re trying to cultivate your creativity in small ways, then go for it! But if that’s not part of your yearly goals—don’t feel obligated to make it fancy! Adding one more step is not only unnecessary, it also distracts from the goals you’re really trying to cultivate. As always, we’re not aiming for perfection, we’re simply aiming for progress on what matters most.

Not the prettiest picture, but this shows it doesn’t have to be pretty to work!

Stay On Top with Routine Tracker Sheets

There are so many great goal planners to help you track your yearly goals. Some are for tracking weekly habits, but depending on what you need, there are also monthly and yearly templates too. Tracker Sheets are excellent because you can hang them in a place you see frequently & they’re easy to grab and go.

How I Use Them: I’ve found it’s easy to make similar sheets on my own so I can customize them to my liking & I’m not spending a lot of money on a planner. In my office, I keep a few goal trackers pinned on the wall so I see it every day and remember what I’m cultivating. I think of it as the permanent, more in my face version of what’s already in my journal. To save paper & ink, I print them only once, then place them in picture frames and keep track with a dry erase marker.

Here’s a few FREE Habit Tracker Sheets I made just for you! You’ll get an email with access to all of the templates (weekly, monthly, mind map style) below so you can pick what works best for you. Plus, you’ll be subscribed to our weekly-ish email for more free resources and helpful tips.

Swap the To Do for a Did Do List:

If you’ve ever gotten to the end of the day or week and exhausted wondered “What did I even do,” you’ll understand why this list works! A Did Do list is exactly what it sounds like: keeping a list of everything you did each day. Why? When we write down ALL the things we did do, we learn a lot about how we’re spending our time and energy. It helps us keep track of the days we stuck with our new habits and days we didn’t—and it also gives us a clearer picture as to why.

How I Use It: Whenever I’m feeling extreme emotions like stress from a busy schedule or shame for “not doing anything,” I whip out my journal and simply jot down a Did Do List. Often I’m surprised at how much I really did do, and it helps me plan ahead to make sure I accomplish everything else on my plate.

There’s no rules! Use a post it or keep the list in your journal.

Regardless if you use any of these tools or find something else that works for you, the point is: keep track! Writing down the progress you’re making is key to feeling content with where you are and where you’re going!

Keep Cultivating,

Cecelia