What I have learned from 10 months of Habit Tracking

I read the book Atomic habits by James Clear last fall and decided it I would give some of the ideas a try. If I could decide on the habits that help me be more effective and then track them, I would be able to see what is working day to day and what is not. If I am not doing a habit consistently then either I am just not living by my word or it is not working for me somehow.

I started really simply - 4 habits that I wanted to track, Gym Workouts, writing my Daily goals, Playing Soccer and journalling. Everyday I did these things I got an X, and everyday I did not, I got no X. That simple. I started in October last year (2019) and have been tracking ever since. I bought the Habits notebook that James Clear sells which gives me a sheet for each month. I write my habits at the start of the month and just spend a couple minutes daily filling my habits sheet. Here is a picture of one of them.

So what have I gotten out of this "habit" about habits? A couple things.

Tracking things I love to do

I have realized it is not necessary to track things that I love to do, because as with most people, we will find time to do those things. I love to play soccer, so I find time to train and play as much as I can. I would do that whether I am tracking my habits or not. It is great to see X's all the way through the month, and that does give a sense of satisfaction. However, if you are like me and are looking to build your future self in a mindful way, the ones that you want to achieve but have very few check marks are the ones to look at and think about. 

The other reason you may have check marks all across the month is that the mechanism you put in place for that habit is working. This is a good thing! For example, I write one short sentence everyday stating the most significant event that happened that day (called "significant event" in the tracker). As you can see from my tracker, I have done that consistently every single day. The reason it is working well is because the notebook I use has a page for writing a significant event. Because it is so convenient and simple, I do it every day. By the way, if you are having a difficult time journaling on a daily basis, this is a good way to start. Anyone can write a single line per day and it gets you in the mode of writing consistently.

What am I not doing?

Tracking habits this way makes it very clear what I am not doing on a regular basis. And, since I am writing down the habits that I believe I should be doing, I have to ask the hard question why? Most of the time it is because I am not really committed or I am feeling nervous about getting started. When this happens I need to decide if I am going to do what I believe I should do or am I going to cop out.

what is important for the month?

At the start of every month I have to write the habits down that I am going to track that month. This forces me to look at my goals (who am I trying to become) and align my habits with my goals. Since I believe habits are the way to make real progress toward my goals, I need to ensure the habits I plan to perform that month will help me achieve my goals. In the example above I had set a goal that I was going to do live video sessions because my goal is to become well known in the digital world which will then bring me more opportunities (now you know why I am writing this too :-)). As you can see, I didn't do very many live video sessions, and so I had to evaluate my goals and determine if that was a channel I was going to continue to pursue or would I change gears. I decided writing was much more rewarding for me, so I switched.

I also look back at the last month or 2 and decide which habits didn't work so well. For example, I have in the example above "Morning H2O". This was a goal to drink a glass of water as soon as I get up. That didn't work very well for me, but I still believed I needed to drink more water, so the next month I brought a half gallon of water to my desk every morning and drank it throughout the day. That worked a lot better for me.

Finally, for the habits that worked well, I ask myself, "do I need to track them this month or are they so part of my routine that I don't need to track them anymore?". I tend error on the side of tracking, just so I don't get relaxed and change my routine. It happens. ??

Am I going to continue to track my habits? For sure! It is one of the best ways I have found to be really tactical about them and even more important, tactical about my goals.

Questions about how to get started? Send me questions at brianpharp@gmail.com or post them here.