I review as I go actually. When I notice my habits are off the rails - I flag them with a highlighter and sticky note. At the end of the week or month, I re-evaluate. Was my goal too lofty? Did my circumstances or environment change (travel, illness…) I’m a speech pathologist turned writer turned book coach — so specific goal writing is tied into habit tracking. Gives a square I can put a check in! ✅
I first started reviewing my habits after a medical complication which left me laid up and feeling down. That’s when everything changed for me. I had been writing my habits and dreams (not goals) in a journal and upon reflection - I realized nothing had progressed.
Detecting patterns and themes is how we make change.
WOW, I love all of this so much. It sounds like tracking your habits was exactly what you needed. I had the flu last week and you can see a huge blank space where I achieved none of my habits! But the gratification of giving myself all the ✅ once I felt better was so great.
Would love to collaborate on a newsletter! Let's think about how we could do it. Thanks so much for all of this.
You make a great point here Kolina! So many of us try to pick up a habit or track it, and there has to be a purpose to it, not just that it's a supposedly good thing to do.
I've never done habit tracking, but I am very interested! I'm very into doing personal challenges and stuff like that, and I feel like tracking my habits, etc. could be very helpful in keeping me "on track."
Yes! It totally could! And when you’re just starting out, there’s so much learning to be done. It’s all about awareness. I remember thinking I didn’t eat much meat, but when I began tracking it, I found I ate meat like 6/7 days. It’s wild! I highly encourage you to try it, and if you have any questions or want to vent or chat, I am here!
My current day planner has a habit tracker and I'm great at listing things I *want* to track throughout the week but what inevitably happens is Saturday rolls around and I realize I never checked anything off and can no longer remember if I went to bed by 11 on Tuesday. But boy does it make me feel like I have my shit together when I'm setting those goals!
I think setting those goals is so important though, don’t underestimate that! The act of writing down what you hope to achieve is so powerful, whether you actually track it or not. I feel like writing it down is a sign to the universe, it’s like “look! I’m serious about this!”
I love that you want to track going to bed by 11. I’m such a 👵🏼, in bed after the kids are down every night!
On the habit-tracking front, I agree with Miranda that just knowing whether I've checked off a particular habit for the day provides food for thought, even though I also don't analyze long-term trends. For example, the first clue I had that my new Bible time plan for 2025 wasn't working for me was seeing the missing checks when there were virtually none missing in 2024. Likewise, seeing months of missing checks for a new habit I wanted to cultivate really made me stop and think about why I seem to be so resistant to actually doing what I thought I had committed to do.
On the book front, Tom Cox, Mary L. Tabor, and J.B. Minton all post original fiction on their Substacks. Over on The Big Read, Jeremy Anderberg has a nonfiction group read track, and Hadden Turner's Substack "Over the Field" focuses primarily on nonfiction by Wndell Berry and other agrarian authors.
You track your habits?! A soul sister! I love what you said about how you picked up on that subtle clue. It makes a difference, doesn’t it? And you don’t have to crunch any numbers to see trends (if you were interested in looking back at all). I’m thrilled it’s working out for you the way it is. Seems like a really good practice for you!
I’m not familiar with any of these recommendations, thank you so much! I’m eager to check them out.
From what I remember from my days in behavioral psych, self-monitoring is way more important than analyzing data (e.g., people who don’t have the cognitive ability to analyze data but *are* able to monitor whether or not they do/don’t do a certain behavior still make improvements in those areas). So, basically, you’re crushing it.
MIRANDA! This is fantastic news lol. I really don’t have the cognitive ability to analyze data. You just reaffirmed everything I’ve been doing for the past five years. THANK YOU! 🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽
I love your honest in this post. I must admit I don’t track. It gets a bit overwhelming for me, but you did make me think about giving it a try after reading this. 🫶🏼
I don’t know anyone who tracks consistently so you are not alone! I’m definitely the weird one ☺️ Thanks for the love! Lmk if you do ever give it a try.
I haven't never been organized like this about tracking my habits so take this with a pinch of salt but my sense is that the intentionality / mindfulness / awareness your evening habit tracking is bringing to you throughout the day is a major (the main?) benefit. I watched this doc recently called Don't Die about one of those guys who's really into biohacking (I expected to hate him and it and turned out to be such a beautiful film and a beautiful person) and I think ppl who have such specific goals (for example, bring blood pressure down to X over Y; read X books per year), tracking the data makes sense but I get the sense that you're looking for something else from the process. That it's a habit that anchors your pursuit to live well. Which I love 💜
I track and absolutely review. That’s where you find gold.
Do you review monthly before creating your next month’s habit tracker? Any recommendations for someone with an aversion to studying data?!
I review as I go actually. When I notice my habits are off the rails - I flag them with a highlighter and sticky note. At the end of the week or month, I re-evaluate. Was my goal too lofty? Did my circumstances or environment change (travel, illness…) I’m a speech pathologist turned writer turned book coach — so specific goal writing is tied into habit tracking. Gives a square I can put a check in! ✅
I first started reviewing my habits after a medical complication which left me laid up and feeling down. That’s when everything changed for me. I had been writing my habits and dreams (not goals) in a journal and upon reflection - I realized nothing had progressed.
Detecting patterns and themes is how we make change.
WOW, I love all of this so much. It sounds like tracking your habits was exactly what you needed. I had the flu last week and you can see a huge blank space where I achieved none of my habits! But the gratification of giving myself all the ✅ once I felt better was so great.
Would love to collaborate on a newsletter! Let's think about how we could do it. Thanks so much for all of this.
And glad you’re feeling better!
Thanks so much!
🩷🩷
You make a great point here Kolina! So many of us try to pick up a habit or track it, and there has to be a purpose to it, not just that it's a supposedly good thing to do.
Yes, for sure! Otherwise the habit will fizzle out. Thank you for reading!
I've never done habit tracking, but I am very interested! I'm very into doing personal challenges and stuff like that, and I feel like tracking my habits, etc. could be very helpful in keeping me "on track."
Yes! It totally could! And when you’re just starting out, there’s so much learning to be done. It’s all about awareness. I remember thinking I didn’t eat much meat, but when I began tracking it, I found I ate meat like 6/7 days. It’s wild! I highly encourage you to try it, and if you have any questions or want to vent or chat, I am here!
Aww thanks! I am going to!
🥹🥹🥹
My current day planner has a habit tracker and I'm great at listing things I *want* to track throughout the week but what inevitably happens is Saturday rolls around and I realize I never checked anything off and can no longer remember if I went to bed by 11 on Tuesday. But boy does it make me feel like I have my shit together when I'm setting those goals!
I think setting those goals is so important though, don’t underestimate that! The act of writing down what you hope to achieve is so powerful, whether you actually track it or not. I feel like writing it down is a sign to the universe, it’s like “look! I’m serious about this!”
I love that you want to track going to bed by 11. I’m such a 👵🏼, in bed after the kids are down every night!
I had a feeling that '11' might raise some eyebrows.😅 Sometimes the goalpost moves to 12!
OMG. A total night owl, love it 🌙🌟
On the habit-tracking front, I agree with Miranda that just knowing whether I've checked off a particular habit for the day provides food for thought, even though I also don't analyze long-term trends. For example, the first clue I had that my new Bible time plan for 2025 wasn't working for me was seeing the missing checks when there were virtually none missing in 2024. Likewise, seeing months of missing checks for a new habit I wanted to cultivate really made me stop and think about why I seem to be so resistant to actually doing what I thought I had committed to do.
On the book front, Tom Cox, Mary L. Tabor, and J.B. Minton all post original fiction on their Substacks. Over on The Big Read, Jeremy Anderberg has a nonfiction group read track, and Hadden Turner's Substack "Over the Field" focuses primarily on nonfiction by Wndell Berry and other agrarian authors.
You track your habits?! A soul sister! I love what you said about how you picked up on that subtle clue. It makes a difference, doesn’t it? And you don’t have to crunch any numbers to see trends (if you were interested in looking back at all). I’m thrilled it’s working out for you the way it is. Seems like a really good practice for you!
I’m not familiar with any of these recommendations, thank you so much! I’m eager to check them out.
From what I remember from my days in behavioral psych, self-monitoring is way more important than analyzing data (e.g., people who don’t have the cognitive ability to analyze data but *are* able to monitor whether or not they do/don’t do a certain behavior still make improvements in those areas). So, basically, you’re crushing it.
MIRANDA! This is fantastic news lol. I really don’t have the cognitive ability to analyze data. You just reaffirmed everything I’ve been doing for the past five years. THANK YOU! 🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽
I've never tracked. But I do think it's an excellent way to reward yourself for living the way you want to live. Thank you!
Aw thank you! I agree, it really keeps me on track, even if I don't do anything with the data. Thanks for reading!
I love your honest in this post. I must admit I don’t track. It gets a bit overwhelming for me, but you did make me think about giving it a try after reading this. 🫶🏼
I don’t know anyone who tracks consistently so you are not alone! I’m definitely the weird one ☺️ Thanks for the love! Lmk if you do ever give it a try.
I haven't never been organized like this about tracking my habits so take this with a pinch of salt but my sense is that the intentionality / mindfulness / awareness your evening habit tracking is bringing to you throughout the day is a major (the main?) benefit. I watched this doc recently called Don't Die about one of those guys who's really into biohacking (I expected to hate him and it and turned out to be such a beautiful film and a beautiful person) and I think ppl who have such specific goals (for example, bring blood pressure down to X over Y; read X books per year), tracking the data makes sense but I get the sense that you're looking for something else from the process. That it's a habit that anchors your pursuit to live well. Which I love 💜
My pursuit to live well 😩😩😩 I love that so much. Y’all are making me feel so much better and my habit tracking habit! ❤️❤️❤️
Yess girl, damn right! You're such a clever girl for doing it and I think it's paying mad dividends!
🥹🥹🥹😭