Habit tracker help needed!

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I started a bullet journal in January of this year, and though I don't use all of the possible pages I've found it has helped me become more organized. However. I have a problem with the habit tracker grid, in that I have never been able to go more than two weeks in keeping it updated--there is a month that I think I have about three days tracked. This pains me because I love the idea of the habit tracker and I have several habits I want to establish in my life.

Does anyone have ideas about how I could have more diligence in sticking to the habit tracker? Or bullet journal alternatives to the habit tracker grid? I feel like a failure for not being able to make the grid work for me.

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From:

inkstone

Have you thought about tracking those habits on a weekly basis vs a monthly one? Would that make a difference in terms of encouraging you to fill it out

From:

isis

This was going to be my suggestion. I found weekly habit tracking a lot easier.

From:

tryslora

Same. I enjoy setting up my weekly pages for writing and exercise on Sunday, and it really helps me think about the week ahead and how I'll fit things in, too.

From:

eleanorjane

Is the problem with doing the habits or keeping the records?

Either way - try regular labelled alarms on your smartphone?

From:

type_wild

Before I learned about habit trackers, I used to enter new habits as a part of my daily to-do lists. Maybe put them in in different colours or something, so that you can easily see them when scanning a page?

From:

yhlee

My issue with the grid was that the monthly grid was such a pain to set up that I'm seriously considering buying a rubber stamp and a stamp pad so I can just stamp a new grid every month. (I fell down at the point of having to make a new one every month.) Doing it weekly as others suggest could also help.

From:

annofowlshire

I've considered the rubber stamp solution, too.

From:

dozing_dreams

I've tried several times too! Weekly was too hard because I didn't have time to redraw the whole chart every week, and monthlies got lost in the page shuffle of my bujos. It doesn't help that I'm a very poor hand at straight lines.

This whole month I've kept up a habit tracker in a spiral notebook (can stay open to that one page over several days) which is a scratch notebook (the 'active' page doesn't change) for one month total, and I use the shading method (https://www.instagram.com/p/BZYpMojhu4-/?tagged=habittracker), which is a precise fill without being too 'busy' or going over the lines. It's also nice to connect lines between boxes, which is something I didn't know would appeal to me.

I also don't get too granular with my habits, despite the temptation to. Having one or two very easy habits to complete gets me checking the tracker (handy on my desk) and that jogs me to the other things.

I've thought a lot about this. >_>

From:

telophase

Mark me down as another one who went to weekly. Monthly doesn't work because if it's on another page out of site, it doesn't exist for me.

From:

lunabee34

One problem I ran into is that I didn't always have my notebook to immediately write down that I'd done the thing, and I'd forget to put it in the tracker. Can you make a note in your phone as you do the thing and then put it in your notebook?

I also had trouble remembering to do the thing in the first place and had to set a bunch of alarms on my phone to do the thing. Thank goodness I no longer have to do that thing. LOL

I do track some stuff daily (my weight and what I do at the gym). I have a separate notebook where I just keep it in list format; I list the date, my weight, and what I do at the gym. It's easier for me to do that separately.

From:

annofowlshire

Are you having trouble doing the habit, or tracking the habit? If you're doing them, then pretty trackers are fun and all, but getting habits done are the most important thing. (This is often my problem--I'll do the habit but never track it XD)

How many habits are you trying to start? Less is more... like 1 at a time, and then add more as the earlier ones solidify.

Personally, I find that any tracking I do is better done on the day or week level. (I still struggle with even weekly planning/tracking, although folks here have given me a lot of great tips that helped.) Months are too long for me--something always derails, my needs change, I get distracted, chaos happens, and if nothing else it gets buried.

Another suggestion--keeping your tracker pages elsewhere. Have a few pages at the front or back of your bujo for them, and keep the page bookmarked with a sticky or clip or whatever. Or even have a loose piece of paper or light card (sturdier) you move per day/week.

Good luck! I totally empathize with the desire to track things long term, but the reality not working out. I'm trying to accept that not all lives flow the same way ;)

Edited Date: 2017-09-24 10:22 am (UTC)

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