Let’s face it:
Building new habits is hard.
They’re easy to forget and take all your willpower to do consistently.
Once you get over that initial hump and find your consistency, the habits become automatic and easy.
But how do you get over that hump? This is where The Habit Tracker can help you.
With The Habit Tracker, list up to 3 habits you’re attempting to integrate into your life, then log each day you successfully do them (and don’t do them).
The more consecutive days you pull off, the longer you’ll want to keep your streak going. When you get a long streak going, congratulations, you’ve formed a newly desired and positive habit!
To download The Habit Tracker, along with every other planning template on the site, put your email in the form below and we’ll instantly send them to your inbox so you can print them at home:
Using The Habit Tracker
This habit tracker is simple to use, and can hold an entire year’s worth of 3 separate habits to track on a single page (or two A5 pages).
Once you have your tracker printed:
- Write the date you’re starting to track your habits
- List out 1-3 habits you wish to build into your daily routine
- Determine days you don’t have to do them (for example, you can go to the gym 4 days per week)
- Did a habit for the day? Log it
- Didn’t do it? Log it
Multiple misses will really remind you just how much you’ve been slacking, and motivate you to get back to it.
Don’t get discouraged by missing consecutive days, you only truly fail when you quit.
At the end of each month you can log how many days out of the month you hit your habit successfully. This gives you a score to beat (or maintain) next month.
When you’ve fully integrated the habit into your life and do it automatically, you can choose to stop logging the habit or keep going and see how long of a streak you can maintain, making it a rewarding experience.
Some Habit Tracker Tips
Try to do your habits at the same time each day, if possible. This makes it more familiar and easier for your brain to do them, making them easier to complete.
Pay attention to what “triggers” your habit, especially the good ones. If you can identify the trigger, you can more easily call on it to help you complete your newly developing habit (or realize the trigger is leading you down the path of doing a bad habit, and thus should be ignored or substituted with a different habit). It could be as simple as checking your habit tracker and wanting to see yourself successfully check them off.
Involve others in your habits to make you more accountable. Have a friend join you at the gym, tell your significant other you’d like to cook meals with them, let your friends know that you’re making changes in your life and they should expect them from you and not be surprised when you have to leave early to do something important.
Good habits inspire other good habits. If you eat well, you can sleep well, if you sleep and eat well, you can more easily exercise. If your habit tracker is revolved around eating better, sleeping better, and exercising more, those 3 all play off of each other perfectly. Succeeding in one greatly increases your chances of succeeding in all.
Want to build more than 3 habits in a day? While you shouldn’t overload yourself with 15 daily new habits, you can print out 2 sets of habit trackers and go for it!
50 Sample Habits To Build
- Write a daily journal entry
- Add to your writing project: Story, novel, screenplay, etc.
- Log the day’s events (wake up time, eating time, sleep time, etc.)
- Wash your face before bed
- Shave
- Go to the gym
- Do a specific exercise in the day (100 pushups, 100 situps, 100 squats, etc.)
- Go for a jog or a run
- Practice Yoga (or other form of stretching)
- Read a specific number pages in your book (or listen to an audiobook)
- Listen to informational/educational podcast
- Read a daily affirmation
- Learn a new vocabulary word
- Read a blog post on the industry you work in
- Don’t drink alcohol
- Don’t have any caffeine
- No smoking / vaping for the day
- Play no video games
- Stay off specific types of websites (you know which kind)
- Don’t drink any soda
- Don’t buy or eat candy
- Don’t visit or participate in any social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, Discord, etc.)
- No needless shopping/spending (online and in physical stores)
- Drink a specific amount of water
- Eat at least 1 piece of fruit
- Bring your own lunch to work
- Cook breakfast
- Cook all of your meals today
- Take supplements
- Take a nap
- Keep up with your medication schedule
- Go for a walk or hike
- Make your bed
- Clean at least one room in your house/apartment (or your entire place)
- Clean the dishes right after meals
- Pre-Bed Sleep Routine (wind down before bed)
- Meditate
- Pray
- Pet maintenance (walk dog, freshen cat litter, brushing, whatever you like doing least)
- Don’t curse/swear the entire day
- Schedule your tomorrow the night before
- Wake up at a specific time successfully
- Go to bed at a specific time successfully
- Don’t linger at work (leave at proper time)
- Practice drawing, painting, artistic skills
- Practice a musical instrument
- Practice a professional skill (coding, design, etc.)
- Practice learning a new language
- Call a family member
- Compliment someone (A stranger, a friend, a significant other)
Filled out Habit Tracker Example
