Whether you are on the journey of developing new habits, or sustaining good habits, a great way to stay accountable to that positive change is by using a simple habit tracker.
Using a printable habit tracker is a great tool and a fun way to stay the course and build accountability.
Visit below to download 25 free printable habit trackers!
Building better habits is a process. Not only does it take intention to incorporate specific habits into your daily routine, but it also takes motivation and commitment to keep that positive action going.
Getting into the practice of habit tracking can be an easy way to support your commitment and encourage accountability.
It can also highlight patterns in your life that you weren’t previously aware of. For instance, if you are tracking a particular habit like increasing your water intake, you may start to notice that you meet your daily goal during the week more than on the weekends. This may lead you to make supportive changes such as keeping water bottles in your car for when you’re running errands on a Saturday.
While habit tracking can be useful in many different ways, the most important thing to remember is to find a system that works for you. The likelihood of using a habit tracker will substantially increase if you find one that aligns with how you work best. Digital habit trackers can be helpful if you pay attention to your phone or your watch, but they are also easy to dismiss.
Printable habit trackers will offer you a great option if you are more motivated by visuals or the satisfaction of checking something off. You may find that you work best using a single sheet each day or you may prefer to a visual that builds over time, such as throughout the week or month.
There are a variety of habit tracker templates, some with unique designs and different colors and some that are formatted for bullet journaling too. But before you choose which one suits you best, it’s important to decide which daily habits you want to establish, improve and track. Focus on tracking things that are most beneficial to what you are looking to achieve – whether that’s to increase something, decrease something, start something, keep something going or even end something. Remember, this is for your own personal use. Get creative and have fun!
If you’re having trouble trying to pick new habits to establish or good habits to sustain here is a list of some of the best habit tracker ideas:
- Water intake
- Daily movement / exercise
- Limiting caffeine intake
- No electronics after a certain time of night
- Making your bed
- Not ordering take-out food
- Reading
- Journaling
- Meditation or reflection time
- Family time
- Limiting social media time
- Weight loss
- Getting to bed by 10 PM
- Waking up early
- Meal planning
- Taking vitamins
- Saving money
- Cleaning
Once you know which habit or habits you want to track, choose a habit tracker template that works best for you. Here are a few examples:
1. Daily Habit Trackers
There are daily habit trackers, where you check off a specific habit that you achieve on a daily basis. Daily habit trackers can be in different increments with some even going up to 100 days. I have included a 21-day, a 30-day and a 100-day habit tracker in the free download at the bottom! Here is a sample of a 21-day daily habit tracker.
Daily habit trackers can be particularly helpful due to the flexibility of the increments that you can choose. You can also start with a 21-day tracker and then work your way up to a 100-day tracker.
2. Weekly Habit Trackers
If you are focusing on building, or sustaining, multiple good habits, a weekly habit tracker typically offers you the opportunity to stack multiple habits into your list so you can keep track of your progress with each one throughout the week.
A weekly habit tracker is a great tool when you want to work on building multiple habits that help to structure or improv your daily routine. In the example shown, there are a variety of daily activities that reflect different aspects of life such as self-care, nutrition, mindfulness and sleep.
3. Monthly Habit Trackers
A monthly habit tracker is similar in the sense that you can habit stack or choose multiple areas of focus to track, but it allows you to visualize your progress over a longer period of time. You can also choose to focus on one solo habit for an entire month or over the course of several months.
Monthly trackers, such as this one, allow you to visualize your progress over a longer period of time. It’s also helpful to identify patterns such as how your likelihood to follow a particular habit may change on certain days of the week or throughout the weekends. This type of visual can also be helpful to give yourself a little bit of grace and see the bigger picture. Not every day will be a success…but over time your hard work adds up to big impact!
4. Mini Habit Trackers
Look for different ways to engage others in your household with habit trackers too! Using mini habit trackers with children can be a fun way to cultivate positive habits. If they are young, getting them involved in the practice of being accountable now will yield huge benefit down the road. Keep it fun and have them color in the gumballs on a tracker like the one below each time they pick up their toys, brush their teeth or eat their vegetables.
Grab the colored pencils and get the kids involved! Whether it’s picking up the toys, brushing their teeth or getting to bed by 8 PM there are a ton of good habits that can be more fun to do when adding in a visual. This is a great way to set up a reward system when working with children as well!
Once you have picked your favorite habit tracker, here are some important things to keep in mind when getting started:
- Keep your habit tracker somewhere you can easily access it. Hang it on the fridge, keep it on the nightstand, next to your monthly calendar or anywhere else where you’ll be most likely to use it.
- Get creative! Template habit trackers can be printed in color or black and white. Use different color pencils to color-code your habits and bring a vibrant splash of whatever shade your heart desires.
- Be patient with yourself. Small steps are still steps in the right direction. If decreasing your caffeine intake from 5 cups of coffee a day to 1 cup is too much to bear all at once, then use a weekly tracker and try a ½ cup less per week to start. And if you don’t hit your goal one week, there is next week. Just don’t give up!
- Explore different ways to track your habits. If you find yourself getting bored with a daily habit tracker then shift to a monthly habit tracker to see if that suits you better. A yearly habit tracker can be effective as well – things like mammograms, HVAC servicing and changing smoke detector batteries can hit annual trackers too.
- You can track ANYTHING you want. That’s right, absolutely anything. There is no wrong thing to track. Establishing new healthy habits, breaking bad habits, sustaining good habits – it’s all up to you. And the best way to habit track is the way that works well for you.
Focusing on your priorities is a great place to start when choosing which habits to track. If you have already done some work on goal setting, habit tracking is a great way to cultivate those supportive habits that will ultimately help you reach your goals.
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