Found out my habit tracker was actually making me anxious

I read a study that said tracking daily habits can increase stress by 30% if you aren't flexible with it. Saw it in a psychology blog last week, has anyone else felt worse after starting a full tracker spread?

3 comments

3 Comments

victorb171mo ago

Wait what? A 30% increase in stress? That's crazy but honestly not that surprising when I think about it. I had a similar thing happen with my habit tracker last year. I was using this app that had all these fancy charts and streaks and it started making me feel bad every time I missed a day. Like I'd forget to floss one night and suddenly the whole streak was broken and I'd just be staring at my phone feeling guilty. The thing is I was trying to be healthy but the tracker was making me obsess over the numbers instead of actually doing the habits. So yeah I totally get what that study is saying because it happened to me too.

iris5741mo ago

Wait, you mean tracking stuff can actually backfire like that? I never thought of it that way before.

lindamartin25d ago

The thing nobody's talking about is how these trackers mess with your memory of why you started doing the habit in the first place... I used a sleep tracker for a few months and instead of just winding down naturally I'd be checking my phone to see if I was hitting my deep sleep goals. After a while I couldn't even remember what a relaxing night felt like without the data telling me it was okay. Kind of scary how a tool meant to help can actually make you forget your own body's signals.