Had a chat with a librarian yesterday that made me rethink my whole habit tracking spread

She pointed out that I was logging things like 'read 10 pages' just to fill a box, and asked if I was actually getting anything out of it, which hit hard because my pastel weekly layout had become more about decoration than actually helping me focus, so has anyone else caught themselves tracking for show instead of function?

3 comments

3 Comments

hannahs4523d ago

Wait, you were tracking reading pages just to fill a box? That hit me hard because I've done the exact same thing with my habit tracker. Last month I had 'drink 8 glasses of water' every day, but I was just checking it off without actually drinking any more water than usual. The decoration part is what gets me - I spent an hour picking out the perfect washi tape for my weekly spread, but I wasn't paying any attention to whether the habits were actually helping me get anything done. That librarian sounds like she knew exactly what she was talking about.

west.henry23d ago

and the thing is, i feel like once you start noticing that pattern, you can't unsee it. like i had this whole thing a few years back where i was tracking my mood with little colored dots, green for good days and yellow for okay days and red for bad days. and i'd get so caught up in making sure the colors looked nice in the grid, i'd actually fudge what color i used just to keep the pattern going. @hannahs45 you mentioned the washi tape thing and that's exactly it, the decoration becomes the whole point instead of the actual reason you started. maybe it's just me but i wonder if half the appeal of those trackers is just seeing a perfect looking page, not actually changing your habits.

simonp479d ago

The "fudging dots to keep the pattern pretty" bit really got me because I once colored a bad mood green just to save my streak.