Why do we so often fail in our resolutions year after year, despite having the right intentions? I don’t know the answer, but I have two thoughts. First of all, they are bold. There’s nothing wrong with big goals, but to be sustainable and last from year to year, they need to be actionable. Second, I think this is the biggest thing holding us back from success. We start pursuing goals without realizing what our lives look like now and how we actually spend our time.
Recognizing your own habits puts you in the driver’s seat and, in my experience, helps you set more appropriate and achievable goals. So how do you recognize it? By tracking your habits. With all the energy behind New Year’s resolutions, tracking habits may sound a bit passive. Who can take the time to track their habits when all they really need to do is work towards becoming the best version of themselves?
Everyone.
Once you start tracking your habits, you’ll be more likely to create achievable goals so you don’t have to start from scratch next year. Progress must be preceded by awareness. Otherwise you don’t truly know where you come from.
A few months ago I started meticulously tracking my habits. I had an idea of how I spent my day, but I wanted to be clear about what I was doing. really I spent time doing it. I already knew that I spend most of my mornings writing (I think) and that I go to yoga a few times a week (I think). It wasn’t until I started tracking my habits that I noticed the difference between where I thought I was spending my time and where I was spending it. really Sent it. This awareness led me to amazing progress.
It wasn’t until I started tracking my habits that I noticed the difference between where I thought I was spending my time and where I was spending it. really Sent it. This awareness led me to amazing progress.
For all of you looking to implement your New Year’s resolutions this year, I recommend starting by tracking your habits. I promise it’s life-changing.
How Habit Tracking Works
All you need is a notebook, a pen, and a little bit of dedication. This is because you need to end your day by reflecting on your daily habits. (If you’re someone who needs more structure than a hand-drawn grid, there are also apps, tools, and notebooks to help you track your habits.)
To get started, create a grid.
Editor’s note: Looking for a ready-made habit tracking form? Click here to download a free habit tracking worksheet designed by Kate.
You don’t have to draw rows and columns because the graph paper used in middle school math is helpful. Write down the habits you want to track on one axis and the days of the month on the other axis. The first month or two is an awareness period, so it’s a good idea to list all the things you can think of to do with your time: watching TV, visiting Target, ordering pizza, exercising, scrolling through Facebook, working, etc. .
A note about tracking working hours: If you work a 9-5 job, I don’t think you need to track it since you know exactly how many hours you spend per week at work. But if I stay up late or work from home in the evenings, even if only occasionally, I will keep track of it. By working outside of your expected hours, you may realize that you spend more time than you thought. We’ll explain how to track this in the next section.
If you do a daily habit, a check mark will appear (I use an X).
You can track any habit you want. Just make sure the parameters are there. For example, if one of the habits you want to track is exercise, you need to define what that means. Is 30 minutes of exercise the same as 1 hour? If not, please make that clear.
Personally, some of my habits are:
- Yoga (automatically 1 hour class)
- silence for more than 10 minutes
- < Talking on cell phone for 42 minutes
- There is no television without children
If you do each of these you get X. On a really good day, I get about 6 or 7 Xs out of the 8 habits I track in any given month. And there’s nothing more satisfying than getting an entire X column.
After doing this for a few months, I’ve become somewhat aware of what my habits are, and now I’m trying to do more of them. Fulfill me. This is the beauty of habit tracking. It only takes a month to give you a good idea of your current situation. In the second month, you can start doing things you aspire to, like spending less time on your phone, which most of us can do.
I use an app called Moment, which sends me notifications throughout the day about the screen time I use, including the total minutes I use my phone and the number of times I pick up my phone. This app set me a goal of using my phone no more than 42 minutes a day, and I’m still working on that. If you’re ultimately trying to reduce your phone use, using an app to track how much time you typically spend on your phone can help you set more realistic goals for reducing your calls.
think positively
What works well for me is the habit of expressing X in a positive way. For the example of working from home in the evenings, you could call that habit a “no night shift,” where you leave work at 5 every day and mark an X for not being busy working again until then. The next morning. Or, if the habit you’re trying to track is how often you use single-use plastic (for example, your habit might be “no single-use plastic” and you have to go every day without using it), get an X.
Tracking your habits over the course of a month can create a fascinating visual of what you spend your time doing and whether X is all working well. You may notice a trend. Doing more of one thing causes you to do more of the other, and vice versa. This awareness is essential to adjusting your habits.
change your habits
The important thing is not to try to change your habits right away, but to recognize them first. It only takes a month or two of tracking to understand exactly what your habits are. Once you know, you can make informed adjustments to your habits and include a few resolutions for the new year.
Forbes contributor Brianna Wiest suggests creating just a few goals. “Not choosing even a few goals for the new decade does not dilute our ambitions.” says. “In fact, it’s the opposite. You become focused and clear about what you want to do, and focus your energy on creating real, lasting impact.”
We recommend adding only 1-2 new habits per month to see if you can actually achieve them. Radically changing your life from top to bottom is attractive, but it is not sustainable.
Habit Tracking Results
In just a few short months, I’ve been tracking my habits, and I’ve already taken huge steps toward becoming the person I want to be. In addition to arranging my schedule to wake up at 5 a.m. every morning to write (habit tracking shows that without this arrangement, I’m very unlikely to spend any time writing), I also spent significantly less time. Social media is an important habit for me. When I started tracking, I wrote ‘no social media’ in the habits column. I wanted to know how often you go without social media. The answer was never. That is, never until I found out that I was going to get an X for the day I didn’t waste time scrolling through Instagram.
In the first month, when I was only trying to use it for awareness and not progress, I had already adjusted my habits and went without social media for 11 days. The social-free days were not continuous but scattered throughout the month. I never dreamed I would spend a third of a month without it. It turns out it’s easy! Not only that, but it also gave me the gift of time to work on getting X for my other habits. (In the second month, I didn’t stick to my habit for 15 days. Habit tracking is really It motivates me.)
There is no one more worthy of respect than a person with self-awareness, and with awareness comes the ability to not only stay strong but create goals that will make you a better version of yourself.
Once you have a good idea of your current habits, you can start to readjust and work towards creating better habits. If you’re not a big reader but aspire to be, you might want to add 20 minutes of reading time to your habit. Or maybe you want to try meditating for 10 minutes every day. If you need some inspiration, here’s a great post about creating positive habits. Whichever habit you want to adopt, all you have to do is add it to your tracker and mark it with an X to see how often you do it. It’s disconcertingly simple.
Some habits may disappear. I no longer keep track of my child-free TV days. Because when that day happens, it’s too few and far between to think of it as a gift. I also no longer track more than 10 minutes of stillness. Because whenever I drive anywhere, I turn off the podcast for the first 10 minutes. It’s just now—wait—habit.
There is no one more worthy of respect than a person with self-awareness, and with awareness comes the ability to not only stay strong but create goals that will make you a better version of yourself. It’s not arrogance to say that habit tracking changed my life. I hope this year will be the same for you.
Kolina Cicero is fascinated by stories, reading, writing, and getting lost in them. Her other favorite things include yoga, travel, cooking, Italian, and writing classes. her first children’s book, Lodge and Hobby FarmPublished in July 2020.
