Making good resolutions for the new year has become a habit for many people. But every year, people are disappointed when they once again fail to follow through on their resolutions. It simply takes a strong will to integrate new habits into our lives. Habit trackers exist to make this process easier.

They keep motivation high and also spark the ambition to maintain good behaviors or break a bad habit. In this article, you will find out how a habit tracker works and what you need to know to create a habit tracker that suits your needs.

Building new habits and changing bad ones – a habit tracker can help you with this. In its most basic form, it is a list with checkboxes in which you document every day over a period of one month whether or not you have carried out an action. Have you resolved to meditate every day? Then put a tick in the box whenever you have actually kept your resolution on that day. If you maintain your habit tracker regularly, you will get a picture that shows your progress.

This habit tracker is simple and shows the habit, the day and with a colored line whether the behavior was performed.

Your habit tracker could look like this.

There are no limits to your imagination when designing your habit tracker. For example, work with different colors and fonts or simply implement your ideas online with the habit tracker from SeaTable. You should write down not only the habits you are aiming for, but also your current ones. Tracking helps you become aware of the habits that you have taken for granted up to this point.

But remember: Your habit tracker is not made to last forever. The aim is to develop a routine so that at some point you no longer need to record your activity.

In addition to the goal of learning habits and integrating them into your everyday life, tracking has some useful side effects. For example, you benefit from being able to see your successes as well as your setbacks without distortion. This way, you don’t give excuses a chance and can reflect on your results.

In addition, the quickly recognizable successes boost your self-confidence and encourage you to continue in a motivated and disciplined way. With a habit tracker, you quickly develop the ambition to keep your winning streak going.

Probably the biggest advantage is building routines. By becoming aware of your progress, you can internalize your habits. The habit tracker itself is the best proof of this. After all, regularly ticking off your to-dos is also a habit.

Whether it’s little things in everyday life or turning your whole life upside down – basically anything is possible. Of course, they should be habits that you consider worthwhile and that help you grow. Or simply something that you enjoy. The rule is: if you want to aim high, you have to start small. You can always step it up later.

Think about habits that will improve your everyday life and can be integrated into it. Also become aware of which habits you already have and whether they need changing. Whether you want to break bad habits or learn new ones, you will find inspiration here:

Many bad habits can be broken and transformed into new good habits.

You can swap bad habits for good ones.

Many undesirable patterns of behavior have become established in our everyday lives and have quietly turned into habits. Getting rid of them or, ideally, turning them into good habits takes a lot of time and energy. But with a plan, you can succeed.

6 steps lead to success in changing your habits.

This plan will help you achieve your goals.

All beginnings are difficult. The first question you need to ask yourself is what your goal should be. What do you want to achieve by changing your habits? This question is important to clarify your motivation. Now think about what you want to record with your habit tracker. To start with, you should track no more than five habits, two of which are new. In terms of time, it makes sense to focus on one month at first.

Don’t take on too much, because a quick setback could lead you to drop all your good intentions again. You can also make tracking easier if you set a specific time of day to write things down or tick everything off right after the activities.

Don’t keep your plans to yourself. By telling your friends or relatives about your goals, you create additional commitment. You are no longer only accountable to yourself, but also want to be able to tell the people you trust about your successes.

Carrying out your behaviors regularly requires strong self-discipline. However, there are tips to help you integrate habits into your everyday life more quickly.

The Atomic Habits book contains the tips below, which you can integrate into your habit tracker.

The following tips are from James Clear’s book Atomic Habits and can make your habit tracker even more effective.

Build habits into your everyday life

To make a desirable action more binding, you should link it to the place and time at which you perform it.

Combine new and old

Habits that are already automated can make it easier for you to learn new habits. Simply perform a current habit and a new habit one after the other.

Use incentives and rewards

Not all habits that you want to learn will be enjoyable. It can therefore help to work with a reward system. Perform a task that you don’t like and then reward yourself with something that you find easy and fun.

2-minute habits

If an activity takes less than two minutes, you can do it immediately, as it requires little energy and willpower. At the beginning of your tracking journey, it makes sense to start small. Habits that you can do in two minutes are motivating and offer the opportunity to expand them as you wish.

The longer you stick to a habit, the easier it will be for you to carry it out. It usually takes around two to three months for a new habit to become automatic. But it’s a long journey and you should duly celebrate every milestone along the way. To make it easier for you to achieve your goals, you can add mini-habits to your habit tracker. These are stages on your way to your goal.

For example, suppose you resolve to read 30 pages every day. If you don’t manage this, however, it’s no reason to give up completely. Start by reading five pages a day and try to increase this slowly. Set yourself a minimum that you definitely want to achieve in a day – then you can be happy about everything you achieve beyond that.

Anyone who makes progress will also have to cope with setbacks. Not carrying out your habits once is not the end of the world. It can easily happen if you simply wanted to take on too many good resolutions and they are now overwhelming you. Take the time to reflect on why you were unable to achieve your goals.

Are there too many habits? Then adjust them or reduce the workload. Don’t like an activity after all? That can happen too. You won’t always like a habit as much as you imagined, and that’s okay. Once you have realized the reason for your stumble, it’s important to continue with a revised habit tracker. Because if you give up, all your efforts will have been in vain. So remind yourself why you want to change your habits and find a new source of motivation to overcome procrastination.

And you’ve reached your goal! You have consistently maintained your habit tracker and the habits have become firmly integrated into your everyday life. That’s great – but achieving goals takes time. According to the latest studies , it takes an average of 66 days to build a habit. However, what matters is not so much how long a behavior is performed, but how often.

As already mentioned, there are no limits to the design of your habit tracker. Creating it individually by hand can help to create additional commitment through personalization and provide extra motivation thanks to the work you have already invested.

The template shows a more creative approach, working with colors and a special shape.

You can design your habit tracker by hand or with templates. If you like it practical and simple, you can also use an app or online template. These are usually less creative, but bundle all habits in a clear and structured way. Compared to notebooks and paper calendars, digital habit trackers can be flexibly adapted if your habits change.

In order not to lose sight of your goal, you need a simple and effective solution to track your habits and progress. SeaTable offers you this with a free template that you can customize according to your personal needs. The habit tracker is integrated into a bullet journal that offers even more exciting ways to organize and change your life.

If you would like to use SeaTable for your habit tracker, simply register for free. You can find the corresponding template with lots of inspiration and sample habits here.

TAGS: Everyday Life & Leisure