As I mentioned last week, Goal #2 of my goals for 2016 is really a collection of smaller goals. They have evolved through out the year as my priorities change, or as I decide I want to work more on one thing or the other.
The Original Goal had 7 items on the habit tracker, but some were combinations of things. My first check-in was back in February where I had increased the number to 8, but still had the combined items (morning & evening routines), and then I did another update in March where I split up a bunch of the items and had a total of 12 habits to track. I skipped April because we were away on our honeymoon for most of it…
Then when I got my new bullet journal, I did another habit tracker. I split up some of the combined habits, and got rid of a couple, so I still has 12 habits to track. I did an update in June where I reduced the number of habits to 10. But I haven’t done an update since…
I haven’t really changed my habit tracker up much since then, I am just plugging along, working on making these things routine. So let’s quickly review how I have done, and where I need to re-focus my efforts to make some improvements.
June Results:
I’m not going to go over everything in detail… but I would say the two most successful habits in June were exercising and drinking water. No surprise there. The least successful habits in June were getting up at 5:30 am and going to be by 10:30 pm. Do you think they are related? The habit I am most proud of is that I biked to work 50% of the days that it was possible for me to bike. That makes me happy.
July Results:
Once again, the top two habits were exercising and drinking water. The worst two were checking my BuJo in the evenings and drinking alcohol… Again, I wonder if those two are related… Have a drink or two on the deck in the evening probably means no more productivity… But, good to note that there was improvement on getting up in the morning and going to bed at night (albeit a very small improvement, but let’s not dwell on the details).
August Results:
In August, things changed a bit. The top two habits were making lunches the night before work, and getting up at 5:30 am. Although, that’s only true if I ignore Saturdays and Sundays (which really I think is fine to sleep in), so the third most successful habit was actually getting to work before 9 am. Hmmm… interesting that the month I do well at getting up early I also get to work on time…
The worst habit was riding my bike to work… But I knew that would be the case because my morning commute now includes dropping the puppy off at puppy daycare, and I do not currently have a method of transporting the pup on my bike. In fact, I took riding my bike off the habit tracker for September because of this.
September So Far:
As I mentioned, I took riding my bike off the habit tracker for September, so I decided to split up my exercise tracking in to morning and evening. I am curious about this, because I would like to run in the mornings at least 3 times a week, and I know I have sports in the evenings at least 2 times a week, so I want to see how my motivation is and what patterns I see.
So far I have been unsuccessful at getting to bed before 10:30 pm… And I have only gone for a morning run once… But, I am doing pretty well at getting up early (mostly thanks to the pup) and I am doing very well at drinking water.
So, What Does This All Mean?
And, what do I do with these results? It is easy to see that there are connections between the various habits, so getting better at one will obviously make me better at others… It is finding the one that I know I can get the motivation to work on… It’s also kind of sad to see that not many habits make it to the 50% range (the minimum for a passing grade in many schools). I at least want to pass! The ultimate goal is to be way higher than 50%, but as a baby step, I’m going to try for at least 50% on each one.
Tonight, I have promised myself that I will lay out my running clothes before bed, so when the pup gets me up at 5am for his morning pee, I will put on my running clothes and go for a run. That will get me two boxes filled in… And should hopefully lead to getting to work before 9am (I’m getting pretty consistent at this now).
After the wedding we went to this past weekend (the ? in the alcohol line), my husband and I have made an agreement to go alcohol free until we go to another wedding at the end of the month, so that should give me the motivation for some good success in that habit this month. After that, I might change this habit/goal back to my 7 drinks per week goal that I was doing in 2015.
What habits are you working on?
All-Round Better Me 
So many goals, so little time, eh? I always have goals in mind, but I haven’t written any down and kept track of them at all recently. Hopefully I’ll take your post as inspiration!
I’m envious of your neatly spaced writing. I would have to use a table in Word to get rows as nice as your tracker has!
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I recommend writing them down. Even if it isn’t to make a habit tracker. Having things written down makes them more “real” in my mind…
As for my writing… Thanks! It might not be clear in the photos, but I use a dotted notebook, so it’s not all totally freehand. The dot grid makes the table pretty easy to make and keep relatively tidy. 🙂
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Those habit trackers are beautiful! I like that it gives you a chance to put it all in one page and see how you’ve done. It also encourages you to review the goals each month before you draw out the next tracker.
I’m definitely going to be giving those a go!
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Thanks! It is a good way of getting an overview of how you are doing. If you want to get a free printable of a habit tracker that is very similar, check out Kara at Boho Berry. (http://www.bohoberry.com/) Her bullet journal is beautiful, and she has a bunch of free printables that you can use to get started.
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This is so impressive! You’re doing a great job of keeping track and analyzing the results. Keep up the great work!
As a side note, what you’re doing reminds me a little of what Marshall Goldsmith suggests. His most popular book is What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. I’ll admit that I haven’t read it but he came to our office and did a wonderful presentation on his methods and the things he’s trying to improve in himself. Worth checking out if you haven’t already 🙂
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Thank you! I hope that I can actually make some improvements before the end of this month… but based on my lazy morning today… perhaps not. 🙂
Thanks for the recommendation. I have never heard of Marshall Goldsmith, but I found the book you mentioned in my library’s catalog, so I will add it to my future reading list.
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I used to have a habit tracker too until I forgot about them. Reading your post made me want to continue doing it.
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It’s kind of fun. I’m not doing very well this month at keeping up with it… but hopefully I can get back on track here for the rest of the month…
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Holy cow! You are incredibly organized and detail oriented. Consider me impressed. I feel like I can’t add any more things to keep track of, including a tracker! That may be a sign that I need one, eh? Keep it up!
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I sometimes have to do a big tracker catch up at the end of the week to actually fill in the boxes, but I have it in the back of my mind, so it helps me think of doing these habits a bit more often.
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Another amazing idea! Habit Tracker. Have you read The Miracle Morning? That’s another book on my list that talks about waking up early and I’m sure other things. I’m one of those shower at night because I would never have enough time in the morning because I couldn’t wake up kind of people. I’d love to do early morning runs. I saw you’re a runner, too. I’m not, but I’d like to be.
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I have not read the Miracle Morning, but I have heard about it, and heard that it is really great.
I used to shower at night, but now with my goal of doing fitness in the morning, I need to shower after that… And the real reason for doing fitness in the morning? Because in the evenings I like to be lazy on the couch, grab a big glass of wine, and watch sports with my husband. “Work first, play later” was ingrained in to my brain growing up… So if I get my fitness done in the morning, my evenings can be free to play!
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[…] for the big stuff, I make a schedule and built healthy habits. I started to use Jena’s Habit Tracker it is an awesome tool and it keeps me on track. Just as you get up and take a shower every day, […]
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