Habit Tracking And Visual Journal Rewards for Being Productive

Habits are our ways of improving ourselves (or at least finding ways of not getting worse) a day at a time. If you engage in a bullet journaling practice, you may want to dedicate a page or spread to tracking your habits. Here are some of the ways I have implemented habit tracking.

The Bullet Journal method prescribes a monthly log and a daily log, and I do use them, but I also like to create a weekly overview so I can quickly glance at how busy the week is looking; which days are most dense with activity.

The weekly spread always had some space at the bottom, so putting in habits to track there seemed logical. In the above example, I wrote out the exercises my physiotherapist prescribed to rehab my foot and knee (that week does not look like I was consistent). I never really stuck with this method, since I had to add the habits every week, and a weekly snapshot doesn't really show a meaningful trend.

I found myself wanting to track a variety of data, from weight to mood that aren't habits per se, in addition to the daily habits I wanted to engage in for wellness or creativity.

This tracker would sit next to my monthly log. Taking supplements is something I would typically want to do twice a day, so I used hash marks to count them. Mood was tracked on a scale of 1 to 10. Weight is tracked in pounds. Hot/cold contrast therapy is tracked in minutes spent in the sauna, and minutes either in a cold plunge or cold shower (that's most of the 'ones). Everything else gets a check-mark or an 'X' for yes or no. At the end of the month I can calculate totals or averages.

If you're wondering why I would use an analog method rather than an app or spreadsheet, it's because I really get enough screen time as it is, and the physical act of writing in pen on paper is pleasing to me. I can still use digital tools if I need to get more data-driven, but it's been fun this way.

There are some activities I want to engage in more often, but not necessarily daily. Some of them I are along the lines of household chores, and some are side projects and/or creative endeavours. I imagined having a big jar, and every time I spent time on one of these activities, I'd get to put a bead or marble into the jar. Each activity has its own colour marble.

Dedicating an entire page to each jar (constructive and creative) ended up being wasteful; a single notebook lasts me about 3 months, and the jars looked pitifully empty.

So I transitioned to smaller jars.

I liked the splash of colour, and it ensured that I didn't play favourites too much in terms of what I turned to in my free time; I wanted to keep the jars looking colourful and not the monotone of a single colour. The problem was, I got the same 'reward' for spending 10 minutes as an hour, and it didn't give me a sense of scale. I still use the jars spread for these activities in general, but I added a sub-section to my habit tracker grid that gives me some colour and data. As you see below, each 10 minute time block spent gets a square.

I hope these spreads can inspire my fellow bullet journal enthusiasts to track their habits both meaningfully and in a fun way.