Used to think tracking habits daily was a waste of time

I was dead set against habit trackers for like 2 years. Thought logging 'drank water' or 'read 10 pages' was pointless busywork. Then my buddy Jake showed me his 6 month tracker last week and how he could see exactly when his gym attendance dropped after holidays. I tried it for 30 days and now I get it - the visual streak thing actually keeps me going. Has anyone else found a specific habit they track that totally changed their routine?

2 comments

2 Comments

blakem131mo agoMost Upvoted

I actually think these habit trackers are a trap and I'll die on that hill. You're basically training yourself to care more about the checkbox than the actual behavior you're trying to build. I tried the whole streak thing for reading and ended up picking up my phone just to log 2 pages at midnight instead of actually enjoying a book. The real problem is people use the tracker as a crutch instead of building actual discipline or understanding why they stop doing things. Like you said your friend's gym attendance dropped after holidays - well no tracker is going to fix the fact that life happens and you need to adapt, not just stare at a broken chain of x's. I'd rather spend that 5 minutes a day actually doing the thing instead of pretending I'm productive by coloring in a square.

the_jenny1mo ago

That midnight logging thing is exactly why I quit using apps for habits, I realized I was gaming the system instead of actually reading. 127 days of "reading" on my app and I barely remembered what I'd read because I was so focused on keeping the streak alive. The tracker works until the first time you break it, and then you're either lying to yourself or giving up completely.