Looking for a habit tracker for your bullet journal? Bullet Journaling is a popular method of planning and taking notes. It’s a great tool for those of us who LOVE pen and paper. While I love all of the gorgeous hand-drawn bullet journal templates, I know that mine will never look quite as pretty, so I often look for printable bullet journal templates. One of my most used templates is a habit tracker template and it works great in a bullet journal. I’m also including 50 habit tracker ideas to help you get started.
In this post I will answer the questions:
What is Habit Tracking
Why should you use a habit tracker?
Why does habit tracking work
What habits should you track?
How to use a habit tracker?
Why should you add a habit tracker to your bullet journal?
50 Bullet Journal Habit Tracking Ideas
Doing a Monthly Review of Your Habits
What is Habit Tracking?
Habit tracking is a method of tracking the progress you are making with new habits by simply marking off each day that you perform that habit. It is a great way to record your daily, weekly, or monthly habits.
Why Should you Use a Habit Tracker?
People used to think that it takes 21 days to stick with a new habit but new studies say that it takes 66 days (2 months!) to stick to new habits or break bad habits. (Phillippa Lally, PhD, senior researcher, University College London) Using a daily habit tracker helps you to see how your small steps help you grow. Having a way to track your progress is really helpful.
Many of us have goals that we are working on and in order to reach those goals, there are often lots of steps and habits that need to be worked on first. When we are trying to create better habits, it takes hard work, and being able to keep track of your habits will help you toward your goal. Seeing your progress is motivating. At the same time seeing when you’re struggling or missing the mark is good accountability. The important thing is to remember that growth takes time and to be patient.
Why does habit tracking work?
A habit is “a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.”
I love that definition because the end gives me hope. “hard to give up”. When we are trying to create helpful or healthy habits one of the biggest hurdles is your mindset. Feeling like you’re just going to fail.
This is why habit tracking is so helpful. Watching your progress over time can become super motivating and creates sort of a game, where you try to create a streak of success. I’m a super competitive person so making it a game keeps me super motivated.
What Habits Should you Track in a Habit Tracker?
There’s a saying, “Motivation is what gets you started.” I think this is true for creating and sticking with new habits. Half the battle is staying motivated. When you set new goals there are usually daily, weekly, or monthly things that you need to do.
SLEEP – If you struggle with getting enough sleep, you might set a goal to go to bed by 10 pm each night. The more consistent you are going to bed early, the faster you will see results. Because you are looking at your habit tracker every day, it makes the perfect sleep tracker.
FINANCES – If one of your goals is to save $500 dollars, a new habit might be to spend less money, so tracking each day that you don’t spend any money is a great thing to add to your tracker. I usually call this “no spend”. I find that even seeing this task every day helps me to remember the goal and try not to spend carelessly.
WELLNESS – During the winter I struggle with the long dark days and need to get outside for my own mental health. One of these seasonal habits is to go for 2 walks a day. It’s a hard one that I really struggle with but I keep it on my habit tracker to remind me that it is important to try to achieve this habit every day.
PERSONAL – While it’s easy to track these types of habits you might have more personal habits to work on. One goal might be to “improve my relationship with my sister.” You might want to add text ______ to the tracker. Or maybe you’re really struggling with negativity, a good habit would be to write down 3 things you’re thankful for each day (“Gratitude”).
A habit tracker can be used to record your progress in so many areas. Below I’m sharing some of the best habit tracker ideas to help get you started. I hope that this much inspiration will help you to track different daily activities, and take small steps towards your goals.
How to Use Your Own Habit Tracker
There are many different habit tracker layouts. I like using a monthly habit tracker so I can review my progress on a monthly basis and see any patterns. I’ve created a monthly habit tracker template that you can print and put in your own bullet journal.
*The instructions on how to get your free PDFs are at the end of this post.
Once you have printed the free habit tracking template (at the end of this post) and added it to your bullet journal you can start listing your habits down the first column using my list of habit tracker ideas. You DO NOT have to fill in every single line. Start small! The sure-fire way to make this too difficult and give up is to have a huge list of things to track. Keep it simple and pick a few simple good habits to track.
Decide how you’re going to mark your tracker – There are different ways to mark your habit tracker. You can use X marks to mark every day that you complete the habit. I like to use a checkmark for days that I do the habit and a dot on days that I don’t. You can also use different colors to mark off the days. Find a way that you like, some easy way to mark the boxes each day of the week.
Why should you add a habit tracker to your bullet journal?
One benefit of using your bullet journal to track your habits is that they are super portable and easy to keep with you. Adding a habit tracker to your bullet journal is the best way to have your tracker with you so you can track your daily habits easily.
Rather than carrying around a larger, bulky planner; a bullet journal is usually about 6″ x 8 1/4. It is usually not very thick and doesn’t typically have big ring binding to get in the way.
50 Bullet Journal Habit Tracking Ideas for Your Bullet Journal:
- Wake up earlier
- Drink more water
- Eating a healthy breakfast
- Going for a daily walk
- Go outside for 20 minutes a day
- Limit your screen time/social media
- Read __ minutes a day
- Go to the gym or working out
- Track your daily yoga practice
- Spend 1-on-1 time with your partner, spouse, child, or friend.
- Call a close friend or family member
- Clean up after making a meal
- Empty and shiny kitchen sink before bed (*hat tip to the FlyLady)
- Wipe down the counters every day
- Floss your teeth
- Take daily vitamins or medication
- Write or say daily affirmations
- Do not spend any money
- Do your skincare routine
- Make your bed
- Put away shoes (seriously this is one of mine!)
- Compliment someone random (this is a fun one!)
- Text a friend
- Do physical therapy stretches
- Complete your daily journaling
- Complete your morning routine
- Eat Lunch (I often forget to do this)
- Check bank account
- Do 1 load of laundry
- Transfer money to savings
- Read scriptures
- Clean out your email inbox all emails (many people call this “getting to inbox zero”
- Delete unnecessary photos from your phone each night
- Clean off your desk after work
- Read to the children
- Practice a new language
- Do a craft or hobby
- Clean garbage out of the car
- Get ingredients ready for tomorrow night’s dinner
- Post to social media
- Work on your photo book
- Do cardio workout
- Water the plants
- Sweep the floor
- Reset the kitchen for the next day
- Reply to all text messages
- Go through and cleanup photos on your phone
- Practice a musical instrument
- Run ___ miles
- Go to bed by ____ (pick a time, be specific!)
Doing a Monthly Review of Your Habits
Reviewing your progress is crucial when you are trying to build new habits. At the end of the month take time to review your tracker and see how well you did with your daily tasks. Look through the entire month for any patterns.
Do you struggle to get in your daily run on the weekends but you did a great day during the week. Maybe running doesn’t have to be something you do on a daily basis.
Maybe you didn’t make any progress with your new bedtime, now is. a great time to reevaluate and see if your habits are realistic or if you need to adjust. You will likely see that you are on the right track with several of your habits. Once you feel confident that a new habit has become a part of your daily routine, you might want to consider taking it off your tracker.
Slowly over time, you will see these new positive habits are becoming a part of your regular routine. Congratulations!! I think the best part of tracking your habits is being able to see your growth and progress every day.
Print the Habit Tracker for your Bullet Journal
To print the simple habit tracker template to fit in your bullet journal simply print 1 copy of the template and cut it out. It should be about A5 (8.5×5.5). You will get 2 habit trackers on each page.
Depending on your bullet journal size you may want to increase or decrease the size a little. (see screenshot below for Mac instructions.) If you need help increasing/decreasing the size of your page on a PC click here.
It might take a few tries depending on the size of your notebook but it should print pretty close to the correct size the first time. Once you’ve printed your page you’ll want to cut the page in half. I usually trim around my habit tracker as well, to make it fit on my page better. Then affix it to a page in your bullet journal and you’re ready to go!
You don’t have to have a habit tracker bullet journal, the template can also be printed and added to a ring or disc-bound planner, or tucked into your planner or notebook.
Get your Habit Tracker and List of Habit Ideas to Track
You should receive your download link via e-mail within the hour. Be sure you check your SPAM or Promotions folder if you’re not finding the e-mail. If, after an hour, you have not received your link, please contact me and I’ll help you figure out what happened.
The fine print:
For personal use only. Please do not reproduce or redistribute without written permission. Classroom use is permitted.
Looking for More Productivity Posts?
- Time Blocking 101 – How to get started with a free Time Blocking Template
- Finding the Right Block Schedule Template
- Habit Tracking – Get a free printable tracker
- Free Weekly Planner Printables
- How to Create a Morning Routine
- How to Complete a Brain Dump with a Free Trigger List
- Must-Have Productivity Books to Improve your Time Management
- Review Your Year with This Annual Review Template
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