Vent: my habit tracker was a total disaster until I simplified it

I started bullet journaling about 4 months ago, and I went all in on this super detailed habit tracker with 15 different things to check every day. It looked beautiful with all these colors and little icons, but I kept missing days because it was too much work to fill in. Then about 3 weeks ago I had this moment where I realized I wasn't actually using any of the data, I was just making pretty squares. So I ripped out the whole page and just put a tiny column for 3 habits - water intake, walk outside, and read before bed. Now I actually fill it out every day because it takes 10 seconds. Has anyone else found that keeping it super bare bones works better than the fancy spreads?

3 comments

3 Comments

sean_johnson162mo ago

Glad you ditched the 15 habit thing, that sounds exhausting lol. Picking 3 that actually improve your daily life instead of just filling boxes is the whole point, plus the data from those 3 is way more useful than tracking junk like "flossed" every day.

stella_baker14d ago

Water and walking are easy because you literally can't avoid them. You're going to drink something and move at some point anyway, so making it deliberate just shifts when you do it. Reading was the hardest to stick with but I swapped scrolling before bed for an actual book, and the sleep quality difference is crazy. @simonl11 the trick is picking stuff that's already in your day, just changing how you do it. For the others like flossing or journaling, I realized I was just trying to force things that didn't matter enough to me.

simonl112mo agoMost Upvoted

You went from 15 habits to 3 and it actually stuck, so what made you pick water, walking, and reading over the other 12?