Habit #8 — Tracking Progress

I had a conversation with my first subscriber the other day. The person who’s been with me since the very beginning. The person I told before anyone else that I was taking on this challenge and starting this blog. In other words, My wife.

She really challenged me about tracking my progress with my various habits, and about letting my readers know how I’m doing with them.

I had asked her what she thought about my “About” page, which was new at the time, hoping to hear if she had any suggestions. Instead she had a question; “How are you doing with your habits?” She noted that, as a reader of the blog, it could seem like I’ve been setting these goals and then following though on them perfectly along the way, (She knows that isn’t true.) and she said she’d like to hear an update to know how I’m doing.

That’s when I realized that I couldn’t answer that question. Not precisely anyway.

I felt like I was doing pretty good. I knew some things were a little hit-or-miss and others were doing really well. But I hadn’t been tracking my progress, I couldn’t give her hard numbers.

I’ve talked before about how, “What get measured gets managed.” But, I haven’t been measuring my progress with my habits so far. (And, honestly, I know that some of them haven’t been happening at all.) If I’m not keeping good track of my habits, how am I supposed to know if I’m improving? How am I supposed to know if this whole challenge is even doing what it’s supposed to?

So that’s my next habit. I’m going to start tracking my progress on all my goals. I’m going to start keeping all my stats in one place. At the end of the two weeks I’ll do an update on my progress for that time, and maybe re-evaluate a few things.

Anyone have any great resources for tracking progress?