Why Tracking Habits Matters
Deciding you want to change some habits to reach goals in the new year or any time can be the easy part. Actually changing the behavior and building momentum is a bit harder. Goals can absolutely be reached by tracking your habits and celebrating even small wins. How you choose to track your habits is a personal choice.
I personally like pen and paper. I use a 5×7 size journal with a calendar I keep on my desk or easily carry with me. Here’s a journal that I use regularly and I absolutely love! You may prefer to use an app or a calendar you can see placed on your refrigerator to update. Whichever helps you succeed, that’s the choice to make. This might seem silly if you are doing something that appears small like setting your alarm to wake up a little earlier. But tracking the habits you change and noting how it is going can be really beneficial for you. Your tracker might just be a check mark to say you completed the task. Keep it simple! Add journaling for added insight. Check out my blog on journaling as a secret weapon to create habits.
It Helps to Keep Up the Momentum
Keeping up with new habits is a challenge, since you are adjusting to doing something different in your daily life that you were not doing before. From skipping your morning cup of coffee for tea instead, to remembering to fit in a workout during the day, you need time to adjust to it. There might also come a time when you lose some of your motivation, making it harder to stick to. By tracking it in a journal or planner, you can see how long you have been keeping up with the new habit. This motivates you and reminds you every day to continue with it.
You Can Track Progress of Your Habits
Although tracking new habits can just be a matter of marking down how many days you have done it, it’s important to make notes about how it is going. This is why using a physical journal or an app that allows for journaling is highly recommended. You can write about how you feel it is going, if and when you are seeing improvements from the new habit. You may even notice you just are not seeing benefits from it. That’s ok. What works for one person, may not work for others.
It Helps to Tie Them with the Goals
Many new habits are created in order for you to reach certain goals in your work or home life. By tracking progress of your habits, you can also use it to help mark things off your task list for each of your goals. Maybe you have a goal of one day completing a 5K, so you need to start new habits of walking each day, then running each day, then making sure you are fueling your body with healthy foods. These habits are helping you to reach your end goal.
Tracking Makes it Easier to Adjust Your Habits
Finally, some of your new habits will need to be adjusted or change completely. But don’t change back too soon. Give it a few weeks and then review how it’s going. Don’t give up because you don’t want to wake up early on one particular morning. Maybe getting up early five mornings and sleeping in two days a week is a more achievable habit to embrace. Continue tracking the progress, including how long you have been doing it for, if you have been consistent, and if it is bringing you the results you were hoping for.
Habit tracking helps you see your current habits and celebrate the habits you are changing to reach your goals.
Kathleen is a registered nurse who became a certified life and health coach after going through a very difficult perimenopause (full menopause at 44). With the help of a health coach, she finally understood how making simple lifestyle shifts would improve her health and help her feel her best! She’s now on a mission to help other women tackle menopause head-on, embrace intuitive eating, and rediscover trust in their bodies — without all the stress or struggle.
