Success Tip: Keep a Habit Tracker

Have you heard of a habit tracker? While the concept is one that's been around for ages, it's recently begun to gain traction among people who are trying to stay on track with making positive changes. Tracking your desired activities can ensure you are completing them. With repetition, they will soon become automatic actions you don't even have to think about. Let me share with you more about what this useful resource is and just how to keep a habit tracker.

About Habit Trackers

Your habit tracker can be in paper form, online or in an app. The format you choose is up to you. It should fit your preferences and your lifestyle. Many people like to create their own record keeping system in a journal so that they can customize the set up and use their creativity. This may be ideal for you, especially if you prefer to use pen and paper to record your thoughts. If you're someone who enjoys organization, you may wish to use a spreadsheet to keep track of things. You're likely to be able to find an easy program online for habit tracking if you want to be able to access electronic data on any device. For those who live by their handheld devices, a mobile app could be the best choice.

Using Your Tracker

If you're making your own habit tracker on paper, you can structure the format any way you want. However, I can give you some general guidelines to get you started. Consider adding the month and the year at the top of your page as your title. Your top row of content could contain a space for each day of the month. Down the side of the page is where you should list each task you intend to track. You color code your tasks to assist in the organizing process or use stickers to add emphasis to important milestones. Making your own record keeping system can be fun and unique. If you go with a digital system, you will follow the guidelines already in place with your program. Experiment with different ones to see which you like best.

Tips for Tracking

Be sure not to attempt to track too many habits at once. As we've mentioned, it can become overwhelming to try to manage too many changes. They key to forming habits that become automatic is repetition. You'll be more apt to seamlessly adapt a new task into your routine if you can do it every day. Keeping your new habits to a manageable number can improve your odds of doing this. Keep going for at least a month before revising habits or adding a new one. This is a good amount of time to let your new routine sink in.

Another tip is to do each habit at the same time each day. This will cause new neural pathways to form in your brain that make the action begin to seem easier. Add triggers such as an alarm or action like getting out of bed to help remind you.

A habit tracker can be your new best friend on the road to keeping your resolution. Give this method a shot if you want your new activities to become ingrained into your routine and to have a record of your progress.

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