4 Things I Noticed When I Started Using a Habit Tracking App
I’ll spare you all the obligatory statement on what a trash heap last year was and just say this — I did not thrive during The-Year-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named. I didn’t even come close to meeting the ambitious goals I set for myself at the beginning of last year. I am a fairly driven person — the type of person who tracks how many miles they run in a notebook, who sets goals for how many backpacking trips I want to fit into a summer, who actually has a color-coded spreadsheet of the rock climbing routes I have tried and want to try at my local crag. An insufferably anal-retentive, data-driven, outcomes-oriented person, to put it mildly.
Since I did not come out of last year’s lockdown with any measurable successes beyond the size of the butt crater I made in our couch, I decided a few months ago to start using a habit tracker to attempt a major life makeover.
For those of you who are not familiar, a habit tracker is a method of keeping daily track of activities you’ve set a goal for. There are many low budge habit tracker options — pencil and paper in a bullet journal, or printing and taping a downloaded template to your fridge. The idea is that you have a list of habits and for each day you successfully complete the habit, you color in the square corresponding to the day of the month.
I tried the paper-on-the-fridge method at first, reasoning that every time I walked through the kitchen, I would be reminded to go for a run, finish my exercise minutes for the day, or drink more water. Instead, I dreaded walking through the kitchen and seeing a blank, gaping hole marking my daily failures.
The downside to using a paper-and-pencil habit tracker is that if you miss several days in a row, your brain does not get the positive reward it craves, only the negative stimuli of blank space and a sense of failure. This makes it challenging to build behavioral momentum towards positive habits. To develop positive behavioral momentum, we need positive associations with the task or habit we are trying to establish. In our brains, this is accompanied by a release of dopamine — the hormone most closely tied to our reward system. I improved my behavioral momentum and gave my brain the hit of dopamine it needed by switching to a habit tracking app.
Here’s what I noticed when I started using an app (Streaks) to track my habits:
1. My success rate skyrocketed
My paper habit tracker showed a success rate of about 1 day a week on average for each goal. Switching to an app meant I averaged a 49% completion rate for all my goals — meaning I completed each goal about every other day. Within that 49% average there is a wide range of success. My most successful habits overall were drinking enough water (61% success) and remembering to take my medication (64% success). My least successful habits were exercising 30 minutes a day (39% success) and completing 1 minute of mindfulness (24% success).
2. I’m actually motivated by the happy noise and little stars
I’m a pencil-and-paper gal when it comes to a lot of things, but coloring in a little square to mark my success each day just wasn’t enough of the positive reward I needed. The app I use makes a happy chiming noise when I complete a daily goal, and a star appears on the badge for that goal showing how many days in a row I have completed it. Call it a throwback to my kindergarten days, but gosh do I love those little gold stars.
3. I’m more conscious of how I structure my day to support my habits
When I start my mornings now, I take a moment to think about my schedule for the day and where I can prioritize time for my different habits — exercise, journaling, mindfulness. Meeting my goals is no longer an afterthought at the end of the day, but something I block out time for. I turned on push notifications for the app as well, so that randomly throughout the day I am reminded to do things I haven’t marked completed yet — like drinking water. I realize how sad it is that I need my watch to remind me to drink water, but that is real life working in healthcare — you’re always taking care of others’ needs and never your own.
4. I’m not as hard on myself when I don’t succeed
Let’s note that I call it “not succeeding” instead of “failing”. Because I have clear data showing that I have a track record of success in most of my habits, I am not as concerned when I miss a habit each day. For example — I got off track on most of my habits when we moved earlier this year, but I knew that once we got settled in and had more of a routine, I could easily get back on track. There is something less personal about looking at a low percentage success rate (for example — put in my paltry success rate with meditating a measly 1 minute a day photo here) versus a bunch of blank squares on a piece of paper. When I see my current 14% success rate for daily mindfulness practice (yup, I’m this bad at being mindful for 1 minute a day), I don’t think of how terrible I am at it — I think, “Wow, there’s nowhere to go but up.”
My 2021 goals are much simpler than my goals for 2020. This year I’m focusing on developing a daily gratitude habit, getting outside more, engaging more often in creative hobbies, and drinking more water than coffee. Thanks to my habit tracker, I’m making objective progress in these areas rather than slowly sinking into my couch cushions forever.
What habit tracking methods have helped you? Give me the inside scoop in the comments.
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