Habit Tracker

Habits are not instantly created. They are things you have to do consistently for an extended period. According to James Clear, the author of the Atomic Habits, if you want to make a positive change in your life, you have to understand that change requires patience, as well as confidence that your habits are helping you progress in the right direction even if you don’t see immediate results. So if you find that your behaviors and habits don’t seem to be paying off, try to focus on your progress rather than your current results. This is where a habit tracker is really helpful. It shows you your progress in a visually appealing and fun way. James states that you don’t need to make major changes to your life all at once to have a big impact. Rather, make tiny changes to your behavior, which, when repeated over and over, will become habits that may lead to big results. Habits are acquired by learning and then by repetition. It is therefore essential that you repeat them regularly and consistently until a new habit is created.

A habit tracker will provide an overview of your habit streaks. This will help you see how you are progressing and motivate you to continue the streak.

Anything you learned, you can unlearn, too

How to Make a Free Printable Habit Tracker

1. Select a background or border

Firstly, you can choose any background or border for your daily habit tracker.

2. Select a habit tracker template

To change the template select “Planner Inserts” and then “Habit Tracker”. Select any goal tracker template. You can add a habit list with habits to track for each habit tracker printable. You can customize the text so that the tracker list includes customized productive habits and daily goals tracker. Examples of habits can be to sleep more, drink more water, eat healthy food, apply moisturizer every day. There are thousands of habit tracker ideas, but you have to decide on the habits that you want to focus on. See more habit ideas below.

3. Add or edit text

To add a habit list click on “Add Text”. You can track individual habits, or you can include a printable habit tracker list with up to 10 new habits. To select, click on any of the available options. You can also add a habit quote.

You can create a habit calendar with our free calendar maker. Print a weekly, monthly or yearly calendar and mark each day on the calendar. You can add a habit tracker widget to any calendar or planner on this site. This method is more effective when you are only tracking one or two habits at a time.

How to use our habit tracker printables?

Our free habit tracker printables are totally customizable and very flexible. You can either have an entire spread dedicated to your habit tracker or you can add mini habit trackers to daily, weekly or monthly planners. You can select any background or delete it if you prefer not to have one.

Weekly Habit Tracker

You can add a habit tracker to any weekly planner on this site. Open the planner maker and go to “Planner Inserts”. Select “Habit Trackers” and select any widget to add to the planner.

Monthly Habit Tracker

There are three options for each of the monthly planner inserts for 31, 30 or 28 days. 

Long-Term Tracker

Since studies show that it takes at least 66 days to change a habit these long-term trackers will have you covered!

You shouldn’t be challenging yourself to change a habit for just a short period of time. The point of habits is change behavior over the long term.

Richard D. Rawlings (End Bad Habits) 

Year at a Glance

Track a habit over a one-year period. There are many more yearly blank calendar designs and layouts.

Customize & Print

Keystone Habits

Not all habits are equal. Some habits are more important than others since adhering to them spills over into other areas. These are called keystone habits. Keystone habits are “small changes or habits that people introduce into their routines that unintentionally carry over into other aspects of their lives” (The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg). For example, when you exercise regularly then you are less likely to eat junk food. Research indicates that when obese patients focused on keeping a meticulous food journal then other good habits started to take root as well. These habits should be doable and should cause some positive change in your life. 

To cause a significant change focus on keystone habits

Habit Tracking Ideas

Here are some ideas for habits to track.

Customize & Print

Habit Contract

According to James Clear, the author of the Atomic Habits, a habit contract is a good framework to keep your habits on track since it imposes negative consequences if you fail to do so.

In the habit contract, commit to doing something and identify specific habits that will help you reach that goal. Then set up penalties for not doing those things. Once you have completed it, sign it and get two people you respect to sign it as well. Choose people who you will not want to disappoint or lose face in front of if you don’t do what you commit to doing.

---

How to Form a New Habit

• When trying to form a habit to do something, the best way to succeed is by doing that as many times as required until it becomes automatic — for example, if you want to start drinking ten glasses of water each day, do this every day for 66 days. Eventually, you will find yourself drinking the water without thinking about it or counting glasses.
• Use a habit tracker and write down the habits that you want to establish. Trying to change too many new habits at once can be a bit overwhelming. There is enough space to include up to 10 new habits on some of the trackers. However, if the new habits require too many changes then it will be too much to cope with at once.
• When trying to stop doing something, it often helps to substitute your old bad habit with a new healthy habit. For example, if you want to stop eating dessert after a meal, start eating fruit after each meal. If you want to stop eating anything sweet after a meal, you can start a new unrelated habit like brushing your teeth or rinsing your mouth after a meal. I personally recently stopped eating fruit after lunch, which had become a habit, and I started putting hand cream on my hands after lunch. It is unrelated, but my hands feel soft, and it helped me substitute a bad habit with a new habit. It made my hands softer and eventually stopped me from automatically thinking about fruit or something sweet after a meal.
• You don’t just develop bad habits out of the blue. Bad habits are developed via a process called the behavior chain. This is a subconscious process that controls your actions even if you are not aware of the process. The first step you will need to take to form a new habit is to understand the process. All processes start with a trigger. The trigger can be related to a feeling, a smell, an action, an event, etc. The trigger produces thoughts such as “I need ice cream” and these thoughts lead to actions (eating ice cream). If you are finding it hard to change a habit, spend some time trying to understand your specific behavior chain. On the days when you don’t do the habit, you planned to do keep a record of the trigger, thought, and action that lead to you skipping the new habit or doing something you didn’t want to do.
• Use a habit contract for accountability (see above).
• Use the Mel Robbins 5 Second Rule when you feel yourself hesitate before doing your new habit. Count 5-4-3-2-1-GO and move towards action. There is a window that exists between the moment you have an instinct to do something and your mind killing it. It’s a 5-second window and it exists for everyone. If you do not take action then you will not change your habits. However, this simple 5 Second Rule can prevent your mind from working against you. You can start the momentum before your mind starts thinking of excuses. For example, if you have decided to exercise in the morning, start counting backward to yourself: 5-4-3-2-1. The counting will focus you on the goal or commitment to exercise and distract you from the excuses in your mind. As soon as you reach “1” – push yourself to move. Get dressed and head off for the gym. This is how you push yourself to change your habits when you don’t really feel like doing it. It only takes 5 seconds.  
• Set reminders until your habit is established. For example, if you are trying to drink more water, then set an automatic alarm every day at the times you would like to drink water.