My habit tracker spread fell apart after 3 days

I spent like 2 hours last Sunday setting up this super detailed habit tracker for January. Color coded everything, added 12 habits, made little icons and everything. By Wednesday I had already missed 4 days because I kept forgetting to fill it out. I just stripped it all out and went back to a simple checkbox system on my weekly log. Anyone else overcomplicate their spreads and have to gut them?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_rowan18d ago

I used to be a "go big or go home" spread person too, made these elaborate trackers with watercolor headers and washi tape borders. Then I crashed and burned on a 20-habit health challenge after day 2 (I don't know what I was thinking). Now I see you're right - keeping it simple is actually way more effective for me. My current system is just a tiny grid with 5 checkboxes per day, takes 30 seconds to fill out. The fancy spreads are fun to make but they're not great for actually tracking things.

hernandez.ben18d ago

Ha, I think you're onto something @the_rowan. The real trick is knowing when you're building a system to actually track habits versus building a system to look cool on Instagram. I've seen people spend more time decorating their trackers than actually doing the habits they're tracking. My own setup is just a plain notebook with a sharpie and a ballpoint pen. It looks terrible but somehow I've kept it going for 8 months now, which is longer than any fancy system I've ever tried.