MyHabits - Daily Habit Tracker

Good habits in, bad habits out™

What is habit tracking?

Habit tracking is the consistent and mindful documentation of behaviors to foster self-awareness and promote the development or adherence to desired routines. At its core, it offers a structured approach to identifying, understanding, and ultimately modifying one's daily actions to align with personal goals and values.

The technique rests on the principle that habits, the small choices and actions taken repeatedly, form the cornerstone of daily life and contribute significantly to long-term success and well-being. Positive ("good") habits, once entrenched, can lead to improved physical health, mental clarity, enhanced productivity, or whatever specific aspirations an individual may hold. Those positive effects are amplified by reducing or giving up entirely negative or "bad" habits.

Habit formation vs habit tracking

While habit formation is a well-documented psychological process, habit tracking is a practical tool to facilitate this. By systematically logging activities, a person can gather concrete data about their behaviours. This process usually begins with the selection of key habits that one wishes to establish or monitor. These habits can range from drinking a certain amount of water each day, practicing gratitude, exercising, or meditating to cleaning up one's desk.

People also want to reduce or give up entirely bad habits. Obvious candidates are consumption of alcohol, eating unhealthy food or heavy smoking.

Categorizing habits

Experience shows that categorizing habits helps in keeping things tidy and organized. The most obvious categorization is by time of day:

Morning habits (example habits are getting up early, making the bed, brushing teeth etc.)
Afternoon habits (exercising, preparing dinner, doing emails etc.)
Evening habits (having dinner, preparing tomorrow's breakfast, read a book etc.)
Nightly habits (setting the alarm, locking doors, breathing exercises etc.)

Obviously the categories overlap somehow as some habits, e.g. "drinking water", can occur all-day or are readily combined with other habits (e.g. exercising).

Habits can also be grouped by context for easier tracking:

Finally, all "bad" habits are put in yet another separate group so that you can easily monitor your success.

Habit tracking apps

A typical approach to habit tracking involves setting clear, measurable goals for the habit in question. For instance, rather than a vague resolution to "exercise more," a trackable habit may be "jog for 30 minutes at least four times per week." The specificity allows for easy recording and assessment of whether the goal was achieved or not during each tracking period.

In the most basic case, a journal or planner can help with habit tracking. However, it can be difficult to monitor success and quantify achievements with simple note taking. A dedicated Habit Tracking App is more useful and has a higher rate of success. The app not only records habits but will provide reminders, motivational messages, and detailed analytics on performance over time.