Habit tracker: ready-made templates and recommendations

Habits are the foundation of our daily life. They determine our behaviour and world-view and therefore influence our personality. That is why many people want to get rid of bad habits and inculcate healthy ones. However, it is not easy to do this. We tend to forget about important things, lose motivation and give up halfway to the cherished dream. So how can we instil habits and make them a part of life? There is a simple but valuable tool for this purpose – a habit tracker.

A habit tracker is based on the principles of planning and monitoring and helps to reinforce certain patterns of behaviour. A paper habit tracker is an album or spread of a diary with a field for the name of the action or inaction (in the case of getting rid of bad habits) and boxes to mark the days.

The most common options are weekly, monthly and 21-day. The last one used to be particularly popular: it was believed that 3 weeks was enough to consolidate the habit. But recent studies show that everything is individual: some people can change their lifestyle in a matter of days, while others may need six months or even more

How to use the Habit Tracker

First, you need to decide which habits you want to strengthen. Don’t set too many goals at once, 3-4 habits are enough to start with. The goals themselves should be as specific as possible to make it easier to track your progress. On the sheet you can record both useful habits that require effort and bad habits that you would like to get rid of.

Next, you can download a ready-made free habit tracker template or create one yourself. We have prepared stylish trackers in A4 size. Our templates for the month will suit any needs. You can download and print them in PDF format completely free of charge.

In the prepared trackers, each habit has a separate table for each month, above which the name of the habit is written. At the very top is a line for specifying the month. In templates with landscape orientation, there is a field for notes in the top left corner where you can write down goals or observations.

To make your own tracker, take an A4 or A5 sheet of paper and create a table on it – on the left side write a list of the names of the habits you have chosen to track, on the right side write the dates for the month ahead. The sheet itself is divided into cells, one cell for each habit on a particular day.

Mark the fulfilment or non-fulfilment of habits for the past day using symbols – ticks, crosses, stickers, etc. It is important to be honest, otherwise the whole point of keeping a tracker is lost;

Try to fill out the tracker as soon as you complete it, there are several reasons for this:

1. This allows you to capture the habit in real time rather than relying on memory. By evening, you may forget exactly what you did in the morning or afternoon.
2. Timely recording enhances mindfulness. When we immediately note the fulfilment of a habit, it forces us to pay attention to it and reflect on our actions.
3. A tick in the tracker is perceived by our brain as a reward and motivates us to keep moving towards the cherished goal. By ticking off the next achievement, we celebrate a small victory.
4. Filling in the tracker becomes part of the habit. This is how you develop a useful attachment of a certain action to a tracker entry.
5. Less chance of forgetting or missing something. Especially if the habits are many and varied.
6. It is easier to notice omissions and understand the reasons for them. If a skip is recorded immediately, it is easier to analyse it.

Once a week, you should analyse the data you have accumulated – count how many times you have achieved each habit, identify problem areas and determine what factors are preventing you from achieving your goals. Based on this analysis, you can adjust your goals – make them less ambitious or raise the bar.

It is important to keep a regular habit tracker, doing it daily if possible, to develop a steady discipline. Gradually, working with the tracker will become a routine, helping you to incorporate new healthy habits into your life. Rows can be added to the chart to track additional habits as needed. Regular progress monitoring will motivate you and allow you to successfully achieve your goals.

How a habit tracker helps you change your life for the better

A habit tracker has a number of benefits:

Firstly, keeping a tracker increases mindfulness. When we record our actions on paper, it makes us pay more attention to our habits and think about them. We become more aware of our patterns of behaviour.

Secondly, filling in the tracker regularly develops discipline and responsibility to yourself. We do not want to see many omissions and gaps in the table. It motivates us to make efforts to fulfil the planned activities.

Thirdly, the tracker clearly demonstrates our progress. When we see the number of ticks on a useful habit increasing each week, it is satisfying and inspires us to keep working.

Fourthly, analysing data helps to adjust goals. If we see that we are not doing well, we can adjust the goal to make it more realistic. This increases the chances of success.

Conclusion

A habit tracker is a fairly simple but very powerful tool that helps you become more organised, disciplined and successful. Regularity and timeliness of filling out the tracker is the key to its effectiveness and usefulness in forming desired habits. It not only displays progress, but also keeps you motivated towards change. No matter what your goals are, using a habit tracker can be your faithful companion on the road to success and self-development;

Download stylish habit trackers in A4 format. Just download the habit tracker to your computer and print – now you’re ready to change your life for the better!

When implementing habits, it’s important to remember to do the action itself. In the hustle and bustle of the day, it’s easy to forget to meditate or keep a diary. Some people try to keep a printout in front of their eyes, but it’s not always possible to carry a tracker with you. In tandem with a paper spreadsheet, use a handy tool that’s always at your fingertips – an electronic planner. Create a recurring task in the programme and add reminders for the right time. In LeaderTask reminders are standard – for one time, and regular – for recurring tasks. In other words, if you create a card just once, you will automatically receive reminders at a specified time interval. LeaderTask is available for all popular platforms: you can download it for iPad and iPhone. To install the app on Apple devices, use the App Store, and to download it on Android, go to Google Play.