I have been an avid habit tracker for a few years now, but it really ramped up as I got more into planners and my beloved Hobonichi Techo over the past year. But I’ve realized that my list of habits and my overall approach could use a rethink. Instead of just blindly tracking various things, I am starting from scratch on habit tracking for 2022.
2021 is the year I got into habit tracking. I guess it goes along with all the planners, stationery and pens I’ve brought into my life over the past months! And although it’s been useful to get in the habit (see what I did there??) in 2021, I think I can do habit tracking in 2022 even better. Perhaps you are in the same boat- let’s think through how we can make it a helpful exercise!
Start with reviewing how 2021 went
First, I’m looking over all the things I’ve been tracking in 2021:
- 7 hours+ of sleeping
- 8 glasses of water
- No drinking alcohol
- Exercise
- French language practice
- Low spending
- Low sugar
All noble goals. As I think about habit tracking in 2022, I need to consider my overarching objectives for the year. That way my “OKRs” (my gosh, work has infected my brain!) line up and support my high level plan for the year.
So second, I need to think about my 2022 goals:
- Mindful spending
- Healthier eating and drinking
- Learning new things
Immediately, I can see that a few of my habits needs some tweaking or replacing (or perhaps deprioritizing).
What goals really need tracking?
There are a few habits that I have been tracking without a lot of thought, and it’s probably time for them to go:
- Drinking 8 glasses of water- I achieve this every day, no problem
- 7 hours+ of sleeping- I’m probably doing as best as I can on this. It’s important, but I’m at 80% on this and that’s ok for now
- Exercise- another one that I easily achieve every day. Habit tracking isn’t helping me change my behavior, since I largely achieve this every day
Some habits need more clarity around the definition of success. “Low spending” is not helpful to me, since I don’t have a clear metric for what “low” is. So I’ll be thinking about that over the next few weeks.
Same thing for “low sugar”. And since it’s part of a larger 2022 goal of healthier eating and drinking, I need a clear definition of “low” in order to make more progress.
And I’ll be keeping a couple of my 2021 habits- like no drinking and French lessons. I’ve tripled the time I spend on French every day with the addition of Glossika lessons, and they both align with 2022 goals. So they’ll stay. But I will likely be adding a couple of other habits to track to take a more holistic approach to achieving those big goals in 2022. For example, I am thinking of taking a few courses in 2022, and I may plan on tracking progress related to them.
Develop a process for evaluating progress and making changes accordingly
What’s the point of all this tracking if you don’t review progress (or lack thereof!) and change direction as needed? So I’m planning on getting better about doing weekly and monthly reviews of my habit tracking in 2022 and thinking through what’s working and not.
Be flexible!
Who knows what the future will bring? So we need to be flexible with our habit tracking- making sure it’s realistic for our lives at any given time. And there may be new things I try out- like meditation- that need a little nudge in order to get started. In that case, I will be open to making changes to my habit tracking in 2022.
Tell me in the comments if you are considering adopting or changing your habit tracking in 2022!
