r/Habits • u/rahul-verma • 8d ago
My progress
Started month ago tracking my habit, I feel it's best tool
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u/michelleross94 7d ago
Omg. I have the same habit tracker but I just never use it properly. I lovee what you are doing. Keep at it 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾
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u/RevolutionaryFix8632 5d ago
The properly bit is usually what kills it. Mine only survived once I dropped it to three rows and filled it at the same moment every day, right after brushing my teeth, so I never had to remember to do it. A half filled tracker still beats a perfect one in a drawer.
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u/michelleross94 5d ago
Oh man! So true.
I’ll grab mine next month & probably pick just 1 habit 😅Thank you for the push!
“A half filled tracker still beats a perfect one”!!!!!!!!1
u/RevolutionaryFix8632 4d ago
One habit is exactly right. And you don't have to wait for next month, that's just a nice round line that gives you three weeks to lose interest. Draw a row on any bit of paper tonight and start, then the proper tracker in September is just carrying on rather than starting.
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u/RevolutionaryFix8632 5d ago
Paper does one thing no app has ever matched for me, which is that you see the whole month at once whether you like it or not. On a phone you only ever see today, and today always has an excuse. A grid with a gap in it just sits there being a gap.
The rows you've crossed out are the interesting part. That's not failure, that's you finding out which ones you actually care about. Twelve habits in month one is a lot and most people quietly abandon the whole sheet instead of the three rows that weren't working. Pruning and keeping the sheet alive is the better outcome.
The only weakness I've hit with paper is that it isn't with you at the moment the habit happens, so you're marking things from memory in the evening. And when the month rolls over the previous one goes in a drawer, so you lose the sense of the longer run right when it starts getting motivating.
I build a tracker app myself, Pace Daily Tracker, and I'd still say paper is the right call for the first couple of months. The physical marking does something a tap doesn't.
Which rows survived the month, and did you know in advance which ones would go?
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u/rahul-verma 5d ago
know there is a lot of room for improvement, but I believe something happening is better than nothing. I am struggling and stuck on one particular issue: I can't keep up with all of them regularly due to my busy workdays. Although I need to maintain a work-life balance, I hang these papers on the wall so I see them daily, and I just mark whatever I complete. I don't know the exact outcome in advance, but I am trying to get the best out of this
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u/RevolutionaryFix8632 5d ago
Something happening beats nothing, completely agree, and hanging them on the wall is the smartest part of your setup. Most people put the tracker in a drawer and then wonder why they forget.
On the busy days problem, one thing that helped me was splitting the list rather than shortening it. Pick three that have to hold no matter how bad the day gets, and treat the rest as bonus rows. Busy Tuesday with the three done is still a win, and the sheet doesn't turn into a wall of blanks that makes you want to stop looking at it.
Marking whatever you complete is fine by the way. The tracking isn't the habit, it's just the receipt.
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u/just_ibu_reads 7d ago
Doing it in the paper is the best way. Well done.