I Don’t Need a Habit Tracker — I Need Habit Reminders!

I made a small change in my system and let go the aesthetic expectation of a habit tracker and suddenly things clicked

There is something very soothing and personally pleasing to see a tangible representation of you maintaining a “streak” in a habit you want to cultivate. Doesn’t matter if it’s something relatively simple like “make the bed,” a little more complex like drinking a certain number of glasses of water, or a gentle weekly reminder to take out the trash. There’s just something satisfying about checking items off a list, giving you the feel as if you are in control of something, regardless what else is going on in your life.

I subscribe to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s newsletter (say what you will, but it’s a delightfully positive and encouraging newsletter!), and today the newsletter (written by a small group of collaborators) touched on habits:

“I hit 66 days in a row of daily journaling this Sunday, so I wanted to share some lessons about how I broke through. As much as I heard it takes 21 days or 30 days to build a habit, research suggests the average time to make a habit automatic is 66 days.”

That’s a long time! Over two months of persistence! No wonder we like using habit trackers!