Why do we often fail in our resolutions even though we have the right intentions year after year? I don’t know the answer, but there are two possibilities. First, they’re bold. There’s nothing wrong with setting big goals, but if you want them to be sustainable, meaning you can continue into the next year, your goals need to be actionable. Secondly, and I believe this is the number one thing that hinders our success, we are not aware of what our current lives are like and how we actually spend our time. You start chasing your goals without realizing it.
In my experience, being aware of your habits puts you in the driver’s seat and helps you set better, more achievable goals. So how do you notice? By tracking your habits. Habit tracking can seem a little passive when your energy is tied up in New Year’s resolutions. Why spend time tracking your habits when what you really need to do is strive to be the best version of yourself?
everyone.
Because once you start tracking your habits, you’re more likely to set achievable goals so you don’t have to start all over again next year. To make progress, we first need awareness. If you don’t, you don’t really know where you’re coming from.
A few months ago, I started closely tracking my habits. I knew how I was going to spend my days, but I wanted clarity on what I was going to do. Really I spent some time there. I already knew that I was spending most of the morning writing (or so I thought) and going to yoga a few times a week (or so I thought). It wasn’t until I tracked my habits that I realized there was a discrepancy between where I thought I was spending my time and where I was actually spending it. Really Spent it. This realization has brought me incredible progress.
It wasn’t until I tracked my habits that I realized there was a discrepancy between where I thought I was spending my time and where I was actually spending it. Really Spent it. This realization has brought me incredible progress.
If you’re looking to achieve your New Year’s resolutions this year, we recommend you start 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 enthusiasm. Because you need to review your habits at the end of each day. (If you’re the type of person who needs more structure than a handwritten grid, there are also apps, tools, and notebooks to help you track your habits.)
First, 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.
Graph paper, like the one you used in middle school math, is useful because you don’t have to draw rows and columns. Write down the habits you want to track on one axis and the number of days in the month on the other axis. The first month or two is all about awareness, so think of things you’re spending your time doing like watching TV, going to Target, ordering pizza, exercising, scrolling through Facebook, or working. We recommend that you list them all. .
A note about tracking your work hours: If you work 9 to 5, you probably don’t need to track them because you know exactly how many hours a week you spend working. However, if I stay late or work from home at night, even if it’s only once in a while, I track it. You may find yourself working more hours than you expected, outside of your scheduled hours. We’ll explain how to track this in the next section.
Every day you do a habit, it gets a checkmark (I use an X).
You can track any habit you like, but make sure you have parameters associated with it. For example, if one of the habits you want to track is exercise, be sure to define what that means. Is 30 minutes of exercise the same as 1 hour for you? If not, please clarify that.
Personally, some of my habits look like this:
- Yoga (automatically becomes a 1 hour class)
- Stationary state for more than 10 minutes
- No TV for children
If you run each of these, you’ll get an X. On a really good day, I get about 6-7 X’s out of the 8 habits I track each month. Let me tell you, nothing makes me happier than having an X in every column.
I’ve been doing this for a few months now so I’m at the stage where I’m pretty aware of what my habits are and I’m now working on adjusting them and doing more of them. Masu. Please fill me up. That’s the great thing about habit tracking. It only takes a month to get a good idea of where you are. In the second month, you can start working on what you want, something most people can tolerate, like spending less time on your phone, for example.
I use an app called Moment. The app will send you alerts throughout the day about the screen time you use, including the total time you use your phone and the number of times you pick it up. This app gave me a goal of using my phone no more than 42 minutes a day, which I still strive for. If you plan to eventually cut back on your phone usage, using an app to understand how much time you typically spend on your phone can help you set more realistic reduction goals.
think positive
What works for me is the habit of using language that makes X positive. In the example of working from home in the evening, the habit could be called “no night work”, marking yourself with an X when you finish work at 5 o’clock every day, and not doing any work until that time. It will be. next morning. Or, if the habit you want to track is how often you use single-use plastic, that habit could be “don’t use single-use plastic” and if you go every day without it, you’ll get an X.
Tracking your habits for a month creates a fascinating visual of what you’re spending your time on. X is all good work. You may even notice a trend. Doing more of one thing means doing more of another, and vice versa. This awareness is fundamental to adjusting your habits.
change habits
The key is to become aware of your habits first, rather than trying to change them right away. It only takes 1-2 months of tracking to get an accurate understanding of your habits. Once you realize that, you can make informed adjustments to your habits and incorporate some resolutions for the new year.
Forbes contributor Briana Wiest suggests creating just a few goals. “Choosing a small number of goals for the new decade does not mean diminishing ambition,” she says. say. “In fact, it’s quite the opposite. You get more focus and clarity on what you want to do, and you can put your energy into creating a real and lasting impact.”
I recommend adding only one or two new habits a month to see if you can actually accomplish them. While it’s tempting to radically change your life from top to bottom, it’s not sustainable.
Habit tracking results
Over the last few months of tracking my habits, I’ve already taken big steps towards where I want to be. In addition to adjusting my schedule to wake up at 5 a.m. every morning to write (I tracked my habits and found that I was very unlikely to spend any time writing unless I made this adjustment), I also adjusted the amount of time I spent writing. It has decreased significantly. It’s an important habit for me. When I started tracking, I wrote “No social media” in the habits section. I wanted to know how often you don’t use social media. The answer was never. That never happened to me until I learned that I get an X for days I didn’t waste time scrolling through Instagram.
In the first month, which I intended to use for just awareness rather than progress, I had already adjusted my habits and went 11 days without social media. Social free days were not consecutive, but spread out throughout the month. I never thought I’d be spending a third of the month without it. It turns out it’s easy. Not only that, but it gave me time to work on getting an X in other habits. (In the second month, I didn’t track my habits for 15 days. Really Increases motivation. )
There is nothing more admirable than a person who is self-aware. Self-awareness gives you the ability to set goals that not only stick, but help you become a better version of yourself.
Once you have a good understanding of your current habits, you can readjust and start working on creating better ones. If you’re not much of a reader but want to become one, you might want to add 20 minutes of reading to your routine. Or, why not try meditating for 10 minutes every day? If you need some inspiration, check out this great post on creating positive habits. Whatever habits you want to adopt, all you have to do is add them to your tracker and see how often they get marked with an “X.” It’s almost embarrassingly simple.
You may notice that some habits slip away. I no longer log days of watching TV without my kids. Because when I have a day like that, I consider it a gift because those days are so few and far between. I also turn off podcasts for the first 10 minutes whenever I drive somewhere, so I no longer track static for more than 10 minutes. This is what happened…wait…habit.
There is nothing more admirable than a person who is self-aware. Self-awareness gives you the ability to set goals that not only stick, but help you become a better version of yourself. It’s not arrogant to say that habit tracking changed my life. I hope the same for you this year.
Corina Cicero is obsessed with stories, reading them, writing them, and getting lost in them. Other things she likes to do include yoga, traveling, cooking, Italian, and taking writing classes. her first children’s book, Rosie and Hobby Farmpublished in July 2020.
Source: – witanddelight.com
