What is a habit tracker and how to maintain it

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Why Calendar Checkmarks Help Us Get Better. We explain from the point of view of science and give a tracker from Lifehacker.

We are used to thinking that the key to success is self-discipline and iron willpower. But you can do without them if you bring important matters to automatism. In other words, develop the right habits. Not the easiest task that a tracker can help. This is a calendar table in which you record completed tasks, and then see how regularly you cope with them. Let's figure out how to use such a tracker correctly.

How habits are formed

If we repeat an action on a regular basis, neural connections are formed in our brain. You can think of it as an algorithm or a ready-made program, which later allows us to perform this task much easier and faster, and even mechanically.

Automatism comes to the rescue when there is not enough willpower.

Not a single person, even the most strong-willed, will be able to force himself to run in the morning, learn English and refuse buns all his life. But if healthy eating, sports and study have become routine, no heroic efforts have to be made.

It takes 18 to 254 days for a habit to form. For example, an exercise habit is developed in an average of six weeks - if you train four times a week. And the tracker helps to track how this happens.

What are habit trackers for?

1. Help to get a reward

To form a habit, three elements are needed: a trigger (or start signal), an action pattern, and a reward. Bad habits fit perfectly into this pattern. Trigger - left the house. Template - took out a cigarette and a lighter. Reward - I received a short-lived feeling of lightness and peace, which nicotine, which entered the bloodstream, gives to the smoker.

With good habits, things are a little more complicated.

On the example of training, it looks like this. Trigger - alarm clock ringing. The action pattern is to put on sneakers and spread a rug. The reward is vigor after training, external changes, the understanding that you are one step closer to a healthy body.

Only now dopamine pushes us towards simple and quick pleasures. And the delayed results - a healthy body, career growth, brilliant knowledge of English - seem too far away and attract much less. Therefore, there is a great chance to lose motivation and abandon all good beginnings.

Trackers give us the instant pleasure we need. Checking the boxes next to the completed tasks is very pleasant: this activity leads to the production of dopamine, increases motivation and the desire to act.

2. Allows you to track progress

On those days when it seems to you that you are doing nothing and trying little, it is nice to look back at the filled calendar and make sure that you actually do a lot. In addition, the ticked and plus signs motivate not to give up - so as not to interrupt the chain of achievements.

3. Remind you of tasks

Keeping your list of habits close at hand is less likely to forget to read, learn new words, or do abs exercises.

How to maintain a habit tracker

You can do this in special applications. List the habits you are working on and put a checkmark in the calendar if the task is completed. You can set reminders and set a different color for each habit to categorize them. And also look at statistics that will show which habits are doing well, and which ones are not.

Application not found

There are apps that turn habit building into a game. In Habitica, you create a character, and for completed tasks you get points, for which you buy clothes, equipment and pets for the avatar. Then you can participate in battles with other players. It turns out that this is an MMORPG, only your achievements become game currency.

True, with applications, especially games, there is always a temptation to stick in the phone instead of doing business. Electronic reminders are also dangerous. According to research, people who use them are more likely to complete planned tasks at first, but they cannot bring them to automaticity and give up what they started. In addition, notifications are annoying for many.

To take a break from the phone, the tracker can be kept on paper.

Open the diary and draw a tablet. In the left column is a list of habits, at the top are dates. When we have completed the task, we put a tick, cross, dot, paint over the box - as you like. If there is a desire to be creative, look at how others arrange trackers. Those who do not like to draw and paint can make a table in Excel and print it.

Another option is to download a tracker that Lifehacker drew especially for you.

Print it out, write down the habits you are working on (just not too much, otherwise there is a risk of overloading yourself and abandoning everything!) And tick the boxes every day. And, perhaps, in a month you will not recognize yourself.