They say it takes 21 days to form a habit. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ve ever made it long enough to find out. But that hasn’t stopped me from trying.
Every month or so, or whenever I get a sudden burst of motivation, I like to start a habit tracker with some of my goals for the month on it. If you don’t know what a habit tracker is, it’s essentially just a list of habits along with days for a certain period of time, and if you do a habit for a day, you check it off. See my (rather sad) habit tracker from August below:
They can have some variation too; some people do weekly habit trackers, or count the number of times they do repeatable habits, etc, but I like to keep mine pretty simple.
So, in light of the passing of August (dear lord how is it September already), I thought I’d review my habit tracker for last month.
First off, even though I didn’t exactly keep up my habits for even close to a full month, I’m proud of myself for even reaching the end. Speaking personally, I find it too easy to skip logging my habits for a day, and then I let my habits slip altogether. So I’m going to give myself kudos for reaching the end! (Maybe because I can’t really give myself kudos for anything else.)
My best habit of the month was skincare, even though I didn’t follow my routine too well. I like to wash my face when I wake up and before I go to bed, but I only washed my face in the morning for a lot of the past month. Either way, it was my best habit by far, with me only missing a day or two here and there.
Next was probably exercise (surprising if you know me at all). I’ve been trying to do 7 minute exercises daily, although after the first week of the month I kind of gave up. However, I’ve found that exercise really helps me stay productive and clear-minded. It’s a good way to distract yourself from any stress you might have and to clear your head.
All in all, there’s a pretty clear trend from my habit tracker this past month: I stayed pretty strong for that first week and then completely fell off the bus.
Hopefully this September I’ll learn a bit from August and keep myself on track -- and actually last past the first week.
